Make Your Move
by Ariados
Summary: When Drew is invited by Ash to join himself and May on a tour around Johto, May isn't pleased. Will she makes friends with Drew? and why has Drew been acting strangely lately and does May stand a chance with her crush, Harley? CH24 Up!
1. Prologue: Where are we now?

Here's a little bit of background info on my story. While my story is set about 4 years after the actual Pokemon series (Ash is 16 in this story), I'm trying to follow the story as much as I can as there are a lot of past events involved. If something doesn't follow the story completely, I'm sorry, this is based on the Pokemon episodes that I've seen (Which is MOST of them involving May and Drew). So if something doesn't tag along completely then I just want to let you know that I've tried my best to have it do that. Some of the characters have new Pokemon that they never had in the anime and some of their Pokemon have evolved, but remember that this is set in the future. This is a romance story, but it's not over dramatic, although it's got a little soap-opera feel to it. Don't worry though, there will be humor in it… I can't right angst properly. Mostly people end up laughing when I try, which is far from the effect that I wanted.

Now for the warnings: I'd rate this story about Teen. Perhaps a little swearing will be involved, and of course there is romance, but nothing TOO romantic. I don't think there will be actual violence either. This isn't exactly a warning, but this is a Contest Shipping (Drew x May) fic, with implied Cookie Shipping (Harley x May). There aren't really any other pairings that are actually important to the plot, but there are other characters that fall in love. I won't tell you them now, because I don't want to spoil the entire story. Well, enough with the warnings and other such things, let the story begin.

**Make Your Move**

**Prologue: Where are we now?**

When you're out traveling with someone who's dream is to become a Pokemon master,

you never really seem to stay in one place. You're always on the move, from city to city encountering all sorts of crazy environments. While there is a distance between the towns, you never really get bored, as something is always happening. Due to the lack of boredom throughout your quest, your question isn't "Are we there yet?" There never really is any point asking this question, as even the roads in between the cities are eventful. Instead your question always ends up being "Where are we now?"

Since I set off with Ash a few years back, my life has never really been the same. I've got a bunch of Pokemon now. Most of them were caught, coincidently, on the roads between the cities. I've also got a lot of friends now, and enemies. I didn't really know, when I met up with Ash, that he had a lot of them. Enemies and rivals. As the old saying goes, nothing is fair in love and war. So now I've got a bunch of Ash's enemies as my own. I've even got a few enemies who have nothing to do with Ash. Well, I did, anyway. I haven't seen them for a while. Since I returned home from Kanto, I stayed with my family and helped around the gym. While you don't travel much as a gym leader, you still have a lot of work to do. It's still a time consuming job.

That brings me back to the question I tend to ask so much, "Where are we now?". Well this is one of the instances where I actually know where I am. I'm in pallet town. I've been here before, but this time it's for a special reason. Tomorrow is Ash's 16th birthday. Surprising eh? How time flies. Ash was barely 12 when I met him, and now he's going to be 16. I've been in Pallet for a week now, talking to Ash about what we're going to do. I've been getting bored with helping my family around the gym. I mean, it's fascinating, seeing how people manage to tackle my dad and his Pokemon, but still, after you've spent a year or so on the move, never really sleeping in a hotel and always doing something extreme, civilized life in your home seems a bit low in standard. Ash feels the same way and so does Brock. The three of us will be setting out to the Johto region in a few days time. Ash and Brock have both been there in the past, but I haven't. The two of them just want to go back and have a look at how much the area's changed but I want to go there for another reason: Pokemon contests had finally started in Johto, and I would love to enter them there.

Of course, we aren't leaving until the celebrations are over. 16 is a rather big number in a person's life, well, in Ash's life anyway. He's gone and invited just about every single person he's ever met in his travels. That's another thing about traveling, you get to meet lots of people. While this is usually a good thing, I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be hectic. Ash decided to hold the party at his house, and guess what else he's planning to hold there? A Pokemon tournament. I sort of expected this though, throughout the years, Ash hasn't changed much.

The digital clock next to me ticked 11:00PM. I snorted. Ash would probably be thinking "Only one more hour until I get old enough to do certain things,". That's what he had spent the last few days talking about. I wonder he still awake, probably not. He usually gets to bed easily, no matter what challenges the next day is supposed to hold. I'm different though, I can never get to sleep, no matter how much I actually want to. Tonight is no different. I've been lying in bed for an hour now, and no luck.

With a sigh of no use, I got out of bed and moved towards the desk. Ash had a nice house, and I liked this guest room. It was pretty cozy. I sat down at the desk and pulled my scrapbook towards me. I turned to a page somewhere in the middle of it. I started this scrapbook when I returned home after my time with Ash. I piled up all the photos I had taken and stuck them in, in order too. I gazed at the only picture on this page, a large Au Natural photo that I had taken of Max, my brother. I wasn't that good at photography, it's just that this photo of Max with Jirachi was just so perfect that I had enlarged it. I haven't seen Max for a while though. As soon as he turned ten almost two years ago, he had left home and set of on his own Pokemon adventure by himself. I haven't seen him since. He's not even coming for the party tomorrow. We invited him but he was too far off to come, in Mirage Island. I sighed and turned the page and laid my eyes on a picture of me and my dad. It would be a long time until I see him again too. Smiling to myself, I turned another page of my book and rested my eyes on the next picture. This one made me sit bolt upright. I hadn't seen this person for a long time either, but unlike Max and my dad, this person was coming to the party tomorrow. This made me dread and want tomorrow even more than I already did. Who was this person? It was Harley.


	2. Sweet Sixteen

Okay guys. Thanks for your comments and critique. It'll really help as the story progresses.

Chapter 1: Sweet Sixteen.

I opened my eyes. It was morning. The clock read 8:30AM, and the sound of talking people was coming from downstairs. I tried to sit up, only to find that my face was stuck to paper. I had fallen asleep at the desk. My scrapbook was still open at the picture of Harley. This was what I had been looking at when I had fallen asleep. Harley. I don't know why I'm more excited to see him than anyone else… or do I? No, I don't actually… or maybe I do. This was what I was thinking of when I had fallen asleep, or at least I suppose it was, seeing as I can't remember anything after it… or can I, did I have dreams of Harley? No, I didn't.

Every time I think of Harley, I start battling with my head for some reason. It's like there's something in there that I don't want to think about… or do I? See, there I go again. There is nothing special about Harley. There isn't.

I repeated this to myself several times, only to find that the voice inside my head got louder, and louder. It was like a Pokemon using bide. The more damage you inflict on it, the more damage you're going to receive.

I slammed my scrapbook shut. I don't want to look at Harley anymore. It's just going to confuse me. My eyes fell instead on the cutely wrapped present lying next to my scrapbook. I stood up. In all of this Harley confusion, I had almost forgotten about it being Ash's birthday. I smirked and stood up, how could I forget about this. Ash was my best friend, and even if there _was_ something special about Harley, he would never be a greater friend than Ash. Come to think of it, Harley had never been my friend. We were always on separate sides of the contest, so once again I was stumped with why something inside of me thought that Harley was special in some twisted way.

Walking over towards the door, I picked up the present and descended down the stairs. The guests wouldn't be arriving until around midday, which was rather early for a dinner party but as Ash wanted this to be a big party, he had gotten his wish time wise.

"Happy Birthday Ash!" I said as I reached the bottom step and looked at my friend. He was sitting at the dining table which was laden with various gifts and a whole lot of wrapping paper. The only people in the room other than him were Ash's mum, Tracey, Misty and Brock. I walked over to them all and handed Ash the gift.

"Thanks!" said Ash, through a mouth full of cake. It wasn't even party time yet, but Ash had ordered about ten cakes, all featuring different Pokemon which he owned. He was now eating the first one, which shaped just like Charizard, "This is the best birthday ever!" he added, tearing at the wrapping paper in a way that had Mrs. Ketchum frown at him. The present contained another scrapbook. I made it myself, using photos which I had collected, highlighting all 16 years of his life. Towards the end were a lot of pictures featuring the both of us. Ash was now looking at the scrapbook with a slight look of confusion. His smile wasn't as large as it had been when he had torn open the wrapping. He did know that I was rather obsessed with scrapbooking, but I suppose he was a little confused at why I would go and make one for him.

"Like it?" I said, hoping that he did. Ash was now flicking through the pages of the book looking at the pictures, still wearing that puzzled look.

"Yeah, it's nice," said Ash a little off-handedly, still flicking through the book. As I began to smile at him, Misty suddenly snatched the book from him.

"Hey!" shouted Ash, looking at her. Misty's features looked rather triumphant.

"I knew there was something going on between the two of you," she said with a smirk. She pulled a photo out of the scrapbook and turned it towards us. It was a photo of me and Ash standing rather close to each other, both making rather flirty poses. All this was just for the sake of the photo though, nothing was really going between me and Ash.

"There is nothing going on between us!" I said, only to find that Ash had said the exact same thing at the same time. This didn't help.

"Yes there is! You guys even know what each other are going to say!" she said, in a mock flirty voice. Brock and Tracey had suddenly become interested in Ash's presents, and Mrs. Ketchum muttered something about needing to clean the house for the party and left the room, leaving it full of tension. I groaned. Misty wouldn't know. She wasn't there on my journey with Ash. Something about finding out about the love life of others fascinated her.

"No there isn't!" repeated Ash, standing up, his temper rising. Misty flushed.

"Okay, okay…" she said slowly, "Chill out birthday boy,".

The rest of the party-free hours passed without incident, and when the doorbell rang for the first time, at quarter past twelve, I felt tension rise inside me. I was fearing the arrival of Harley for some reason, and now I had a fair idea of what that reason was. I liked Harley, that's what my heart had been telling me all day. It wasn't my head which was trying to deliver the message, it was my heart. It had been a while since I had seen Harley though. Maybe he had forgotten me, he didn't keep a scrapbook like I did. Wait a second, he did. I remember how he had that one with my picture in it. He didn't put my picture in there to remember me though. It was more so that he would remember how I looked, so that he could get revenge on me for, um, not saying his cookies were great and that his Pokemon were scary. He was a weird guy. I'm not exactly sure why I like him, but I know why I don't like him all the same. It's not the fact that he gets easily offended, it's more the fact that he was so girly. The way he walked and constantly groomed himself always got on my nerves. I just wish he would change.

When the doorbell rang, I wanted to shut myself up in my room, but I wanted to go and find out who it was. Curiosity getting the better of me, I walked down the stairs to find it was only Ritchie, one of Ash's old but close friends who I didn't really know well. All the same I said hi, and went back upstairs, relief coming over me.

Every time the bell rang that day, I went through the same process: Fear, Curiosity, Relief. By 6 PM, Harley still hadn't showed up, and a thought poured over me; maybe he wasn't coming at all. I wanted to see him though… wait? Did I. If I did then I wouldn't keep shutting myself up here. Again the bell rang, and I went downstairs and saw to my horror that someone I knew was standing on the thereshold. This was a person I hadn't seen for a long time, someone who didn't really like me because of a stupid reason, and had probably forgotten me. It wasn't Harley though, It was Drew.


	3. Celebrations

Okay guys . I'm putting the PM list in the first post,

Anyway…. Here's chapter 2.

**Chapter 2: Celebrations**

"Drew!" I said loudly, before I could restrain myself. What on earth was he doing here? Ash didn't particularly like him… but then again, Ash was inviting just about every single person he knew, whether he liked them or not. I half wanted to go back to my room, I didn't want to talk to Drew. Not for the same reason I didn't want to talk to Harley though. I just didn't want Drew to humiliate me, like usual. The thing was, my shout had caused Drew to notice me. He looked up in surprise.

"Oh, it's you," he said, giving me a smirk, "Long time no see, May,". I sighed, damn, he's seen me.

"Yes, it's been a while," I muttered looking down at him awkwardly. I wished that I had kept my mouth firmly shut.

"Well, can you tell me where birthday boy is May?" said Drew, ignoring my awkwardness.

"He's um… in the next room," I said, still not looking at him. I just hoped that he'd go and give Ash his present, and forget all about me.

"Actually," came another voice, "I'm right here,".

I looked around, Ash was standing in the doorway. Drew turned and grinned at him,

"Hey Ash, Happy Birthday," he said as he handed Ash the gift. While Ash opened his mouth to thank him, I decided to go back upstairs, and stay there. I had only taken one step however, when Drew called after me.

"Hey wait May! We have a lot of catching up to do!" he shouted. I froze. By "We've got a lot of catching up to do," Drew probably meant, "I've got a lot of humiliating to do,". I just wanted to run all the way upstairs, but then again, if I did, Ash would probably think me rude. I turned around and went back downstairs, sighing deeply.

"I'll catch up with ya later Drew," said Ash, patting Drew on the shoulder and going back into kitchen.

"What's up," I said heavily to Drew. The less time I spent with him the better.

"What's Up?" said Drew, smirking, "I thought you'd challenge me to a battle or something, knowing you!"

I groaned. Something made me think that Drew actually wanted me to challenge him to a battle, only I had no intention to do that. I didn't want anyone to know that I was talking to Drew.

"Well, this a party… there' s no point battling right now, this place is so crowded," I said, coming up with this excuse on the spot. Drew nodded,

"Right. Well, If I can guess correctly, you're scared of losing," he said, still smirking. I fired up,

"No, I'm not… now let's talk about something else, or not talk at all," I said in a feisty tone, "Now that I think about it, why are you talking to me anyway?"

"Because you're really the only person here that I actually know," said Drew, his smirk had reached a point that made him look rather mad.

"I'm honored," I said sarcastically. How long would it be before Drew got bored of talking to me? I stood silently.

"Now tell me," Drew continued, as though I hadn't said anything, "How's your brother? I've heard he's on-"

"Mirage Island," I said quickly. I didn't want to talk about that place with anyone, especially Drew. I had once helped save his life there, and now I pretty much regret it. I prayed that Drew would change the subject, but he didn't need to – at that moment the doorbell rang again, and someone opened it to reveal the person who I was fearing, standing in the doorway – Harley.

Harley was dressed normally today, in his stupid girly costume. He noticed Drew before he saw me and nodded and then he turned to face me and smiled,

"Hey May!" he said, walking towards me in the supermodel way. I smiled weakly back. This was what I hated about Harley. The fact that he was so girly and wouldn't do anything more manly. If he would change, then I felt that it would have a been a lot easier to talk to him. I wanted to run away, but he had already seen me.

"Hi Harley," I said slowly. Why did curiosity have to exist? I wish I had never come down here to talk to Drew, let alone Harley. Yet, I had fallen into a sort of pit fall, and once I did that… there was no way out. I sighed for what seemed like the millionth time that night, and closed my eyes, awaiting Harley's reply.

"Well, do you know where Ash is?" Harley continued, sounding slightly impatient. He began to pick his fingernails with one hand, and he put the other to his hip as he waited for me to tell him. I mentally added this to my list of reasons why Harley was too girly for me. Instead of questioning me any further however, Harley just nodded and left the room.

I felt annoyed now. Although I hadn't wanted to speak to him, I was mad at how he didn't want to speak to me. Oh, here I go again. This rubbish… why did it have to happen? Now I felt somewhat sick, on top of everything else. Harley had probably forgotten about me.

"Well May," Drew continued, ignoring Harley's interruption. "How's your brother going on his journey?"

I felt really sick now. I didn't know why. Okay, Harley had pretty much ignored me, but I didn't even want to talk to him. I couldn't really concentrate on what Drew had just said to me either. It just slipped through my mind for some reason which I did not know.

Another thing I did not know was the root of the problem, Harley had walked passed me to give Ash his birthday present. Big deal, it was Ash's birthday after all. Not to mention that Harley wouldn't have said much too me anyway, seeing as we were generally rivals. Yet Drew was a greater rival than Harley and at least he had chosen to talk to me.

My stomach was now bubbling with some sort of random anxiety. Drew was watching me and awaiting my answer to his question, which register in my head. I sighed and shut my mouth. Drew was still looking at me, he narrowed his eyes slightly and looked at me suspiciously. I shrugged, hoping this was a satisfactory answer to his question.

"I'm heading out to Johto after this," he continued, not taking in any extra suspicion, "I was a bit upset when they cancelled all of the Johto contests a few years back, I was pretty excited to go. I returned home after, and I've trained," he added proudly.

I groaned. So Drew was going to enter Johto contests too. Great. Just what I needed. HIS competition. I was feeling a bit annoyed now, for no real reason. I moved towards the front door.

"Just for the record," I said irritably, "I've gotten stronger too," I paused before walking out the door, "Now if you don't mind, I don't really want to talk to you right now," And with that I walked outside and shut the door behind me, not exactly sure why.


	4. Talk About Love!

Thanks for the reviews guys! I 3 you all!

Okay. I'll the rest of those who requested it to my PM list. There's a fair bit going on this week, but I'll try and get two chapters or more in if I can.

I stood on the front porch, watching the road ahead. I had my elbow on the fence and my head rested on my hand. The sound of celebration could be heard behind me. It had been a long time since I had walked out on Drew and come out here. I had gone inside to have dinner, and then just come back to this place where I felt calmer. The Pokemon tournament that Ash was hosting was going on inside the house, and I had changed my mind about participating. I usually socialized at parties, but today there was no point. Ash had met most of the people at the party before he had met me, while he was touring Kanto and Johto, that's why I didn't know any of them. Come to think of it, the only people that I did really know were Harley and Drew. I didn't really want to talk to either of them. Well, I did want to talk to Harley but my body didn't.

"There you are May!" came Ash's voice. I turned around and saw him walking towards me.

"Oh, hi Ash," I said, turning back to face the road, smiling slightly. I felt comfortable talking to Ash. No, there's nothing going on between us like Misty always says… it's just that we're good friends.

"Why didn't you participate the tournament?" said Ash, coming closer to me.

"Because I don't really know anyone, and I didn't really feel like introductions much. You would have beaten me anyway," I said, shrugging.

"No!" said Ash, looking shocked, "I didn't win. Drew did… he's gotten stronger! He's got all of these new flashy Pokemon. He just swept the floor with me,"

I groaned. So Drew had won the Pokemon tournament. That would add another point to the arrogance list.

"What's up May?" said Ash, hearing my groan, "Why did you just make that noise? Why don't you feel like socializing today? I know you! You're usually bubbly and really friendly to everyone,"

"It's nothing Ash," I said impatiently. It's annoying when people question you about your feelings. Ash looked me in the face,

"I've been watching you today," he said slowly, "And it looks like you're avoiding someone. You wouldn't come out of your room and you didn't participate in the tournament when I know you'd never say no to a challenge! Tell me, what's going on?"

I sighed, Ash was a great friend and he was the type of person who would never give up when it came to something like this.

"Listen Ash," I said, "If I tell you, you'll laugh, or mock me."

"What makes you think that I'll do that?" said Ash with a hint of outrage, "You can tell me anything. Come on, who're you avoiding?"

"Okay," I said, giving in, "I don't know exactly why, but I'm avoiding Harley," I sighed again. Now Ash would ask the questions which I've already asked myself a thousand times, and still have no answers to. Ash didn't say anything right away though, he seemed to be considering my words.

"You're avoiding him because you like him, right?" he said, turning back to face the road.

"Yeah," I said with a little nod. It was easy to admit things to Ash for some reason, "How did you know?"

"Because it always happens when you first fall in love, I felt like this when I first fell for Casey,"

Casey was Ash's long-distance girlfriend. I didn't know her very well, but I knew she lived in Johto and followed sports. She and Ash never saw each other but they were still going out, which didn't really make sense to me. Ash was meeting up with her when we went to Johto as she couldn't come to his birthday (Due to sporting commitments). I didn't know how they were still together as they hadn't seen each other for a while, but then again, love had many mysteries.

"Really?" I said, a little relieved that I wasn't the only person that this happened to. "But at least you and Casey were friends even before the love started… it's not the same with me and Harley. I mean, we used to be rivals but now I don't think that he knows of my existence!"

I had always pictured myself asking Brock or Misty about this sort of thing, not Ash. He was a good friend, but I didn't think that he was the right person when it came to love.

"Well," said Ash thoughtfully, "Maybe you should talk to him. You don't have to tell him how you feel yet - let that come naturally – but you should talk to him a bit and remind him that you exist,"

"But," I said impatiently, trying to think of a way to express what my body thought without attracting too many questions, "But I can't talk to him, I just… can't,"

I knew I sounded stupid. I wished that I hadn't even started this conversation with Ash. I wished I had kept my mouth firmly shut. I tried to back what I said up,

"I don't even know why I like Harley, but I know why I can't talk to him," I said, looking this time at my own feet, "It's because he's too girly for me. I wish he was a bit more manly, then I know that I can go up and talk to him, but right now, I feel like the only thing I can say to him is to tell him to be more masculine, but I can't go and say that because it'll offend him and…"

"May!" said Ash, a little loudly, "I know what you're saying, I felt the same way when I fell for Misty a few years back. May, this means that Harley's not for you,"

I felt as though something had dropped into my body, something cold and heavy. Not for me? I was confused again. I thought that Ash's talk would give me some idea of what this love was about but now it had confused me once more.

"What do you mean?" I said as my hair fell, guarding my face from Ash's eyes. My voice sounded different too, it sounded a bit depressed.

"Listen," said Ash timidly, putting his hand back on my shoulder, "No one changes just because you ask them too. The kindest will try, but will end up failing and turn out to pretend. You'll just get fed up, and you'll be bored with it. If you don't like Harley for who he is, then maybe he's not for you, okay,"

I nodded. Ash was making a bit of sense again. I was already fed up with how Harley was pretending to help me in contests. I knew it was fake. Maybe he wasn't for me.

"Don't get too upset about it, I mean, you can try if you want to, but I don't know whether it'll keep you happy. Harley's already gone anyway," said Ash, shrugging. He moved towards the door, "The party's over, The last people are leaving. I better go and say goodbye," he waved and left.

I made for my room after that. My head was still full of what Ash had said. Well, I've got to make a decision, I thought. I could either try and get Harley to change, but would he? Maybe it was best to leave Harley for a while.

I couldn't sleep for a while, so after half an hour of trying I got up and opened my scrapbook, just like I had yesterday. I still had to stick in a few photos. While I was turning pages however, I fell once again on the page which had Harley's picture on it. I wanted to turn the page, but something kept my hand from moving. I just stared at the picture, I hadn't made up my mind yet: Was or wasn't I going to give him up.

"He's not going to change you know," came a voice from behind me. I turned in an abrupt manner and saw that Drew was standing in my room, sitting on my bed.

"What the hell?" I began, looking at him in outrage. If I guessed right, either Ash told him everything or Drew was eavesdropping. Knowing Ash and Drew, I was pretty sure it was the latter.

"I heard you talking to Ash earlier," he said, a smirk playing on his face, "And I've just got to say that you know nothing of love,"

I seized a pencil sharpener from my desk and threw it at him. I knew that I didn't know much of love, and Drew knew very well that he shouldn't have been eavesdropping. The sharpener missed Drew who sat there looking nonplussed.

"I try and give you some advice and you throw things at me, what sort of gratitude is that?" he said, still smirking.

"You call that advice?" I said, standing up in anger, "I call it st-"

"Stating the obvious?" Drew finished for me, "Listen May, no guy in their right mind is going to change for anyone, least of all you, so you might as well give him up altogether."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked, glaring at him.

"Are you really that stupid?" said Drew, his smirk reaching a point that it was almost terrifying. I groaned

"I mean, what do you mean by _least of all you_?" I said, still glaring at him. Drew was probably just having a go at me, like usual but I had nothing better to say.

"I mean that you're a hopeless romantic May," said Drew, standing up and yawning. Only then did I realize that Drew was in his pajamas.

"What on earth are you still doing here? And why are you in your pajamas?" I asked, praying that the answer wasn't what I thought it was.

"Well May, you are behind the times," said Drew, walking up to the door and stepping out of the room, "Brock's going back to his gym after this, some sort of catastrophe happened there involving his mum. I told Ash that I was going to Johto after the party, and he said that I could join you guys,"

"He WHAT?!?" I shouted in outrage.

"Yeah, well he did," said Drew, shrugging, "And I said yes."

I stalked walked over to the door and slammed it in his face. I fell onto my bed and groaned. Great. This was just what I needed to make my trip worse. Great.


	5. The Travels Begin!

Wow… my story is turning out to be a bit more successful than I thought. Thanks guys .

When I awoke the next morning, I felt sleepy. I didn't want to wake up at that time but the sounds of moving could be heard outside my room. I checked the clock, it was 6:00AM. Yet it was a peaceful Sunday… what on earth were the others doing up at this time. I closed my eyes and tried to get back to sleep when Ash wrenched my door open.

"Wake up May!" he shouted, smiling at me.

"What?" I said through my state of tiredness. I opened my eyes and I found Ash fully dressed with his bag packed. "We aren't leaving already… are we?" I exclaimed at him, sitting up straight.

"I wanted to leave yesterday," said Ash, "but I also wanted to have a party… see, yesterday marks six years since I began my journey," he added, smirking.

"What a milestone," I said, falling back onto my bed and shutting my eyes.

"Wake Up!" called Ash again, "Drew's already downstairs, but we can't leave without you! Quick, pack your bag and get down there… we're getting breakfast at the shop!"

"Why can't we leave a bit later," I said heavily. Ash was a hypocrite sometimes. He never woke up when you wanted him too.

"Because I've told Casey that we'd be in Goldenrod city by nightfall," said Ash.

"What the hell Ash? That's not possible! It takes forever to get to Johto," I retorted. Ash was sometimes so determined to get something done that he would forget that it wasn't even possible.

"That's what I thought too, but last night Drew told me that there's a short road to Saffron city we can take which will take about two hours to cross, and then we can catch the train from there to Goldenrod," said Ash, "The ride should take another two hours and I think Casey's going to be waiting for us at Goldenrod station. If we hurry, we might make it before lunch,"

"Can I ask you something Ash?" I said, doubting very highly that we would make it by lunchtime, "Why did you invite Drew along on our quest?"

"Well, I thought the two of you were getting on. I saw you talking yesterday," he said, shrugging, "And he was really great in that Pokemon tournament yesterday. Apparently he was going to enter contests in Johto too, so I thought why not?"

"The thing is Ash," I said, sitting up again, "We're not getting on any better than we were,"

"Oh," said Ash, sounding a little surprised, "Well, he's a nice guy, and maybe you two will make friends on our little journey,"

"I'm sure we will," I said with sarcasm. Ash didn't notice it though,

"Good!" he said, "Now get up, I want to leave in half-an-hour at the latest,"

With that he strode from the room. I stretched and yawned… it was just so early in the morning. Wiping my eyes I walked into the bathroom and began to brush my teeth. I knew we were going to leave soon after the party, so I had brought my things already packed straight from home. It was pretty much all in my bag already.

I managed to pack most of my other things in fifteen minutes and when I descended down the stairs I found that Ash and Drew were already waiting for me.

"There you are May," said Ash, "Let's get going," he gestured Drew and I towards the door and started to walk into the sunshine himself. Groaning tiredly, I followed.

We bought breakfast at an old Café before setting off towards the Viridian forest. We didn't end up entering it though, because Drew said that there was a clearing right near the entrance which led towards the shortcut to Saffron city.

The shortcut didn't turn out to be a metropolitan road. It was a path which had been dug in the middle of some sort of forest.

"How much longer is this walk going to be?" I asked Drew after two hours or so of entering the forest road. I needed to use a bathroom, something which I had forgotten to do when I had woken up.

"We're nearly there May, and besides, I thought you'd enjoy the scenery," said Drew, who was walking in line with Ash who was a fair few steps ahead of me. I _had_ enjoyed the scenery, but it was pretty much repetitive. There were absolutely no Pokemon in the trees, because the government had removed them to "ensure the safety of people taking the road". It was a very boring walk.

We kept on walking for another fifteen minutes, until we saw some light at the end of the road.

"We're here!" Ash called back to me, and I sped up. He was right. I was looking over the beautiful Saffron city, the biggest city in all of Kanto, and the central city which connected Kanto with Johto.

Drew made us walk a bit more, until we arrived at a tall building: The railway station.

"We've still got fifteen minutes before we have to board, so I suggest we all go and freshen up," he said, pointing towards a toilet sign.

As I nodded and moved myself towards to the bathroom, I felt somewhat annoyed. Drew seemed to think that he was in charge, the way he was talking just made me feel like he did. He was talking like Ash usually did, and Ash had turned silent for some reason. Maybe the defeat he got from Drew had caused this. I really didn't know what was going on.

I finished in the bathroom and I boarded the train. The ride wasn't much more interesting than the walk earlier, but at least I could sit down. I was so tired that I couldn't really do anything. I had my scrapbook in my bag, but I felt like would get a headache if I started writing. Ash had managed to doze off two minutes after the ride started and Drew was reading some book about training Pokemon, written by some Pokemon master. I turned my head to look out the window, and eventually everything just seemed to slip away….

"We're nearly here, wake up guys," came Drew's voice. I woke up, but didn't open my eyes… all memories of dreams were wiped from my mind and I could tell without having to open my eyes that the sun had set and night had fallen. I yawned and opened my eyes. Drew was standing up, and Ash, like me was just awakening.

"Is it dark already," said Ash, through a yawn of his own, "I thought we weren't going to take long… how long was the ride?"

"About nine hours really, I fell asleep a little while into it though," said Drew, "I got up about an hour ago. Apparently Johto's also in a different timezone to us, so we have a bit of adjusting to do,"

Drew was acting like he controlled us again. Something about how he seemed to know everything while Ash and I didn't was annoying me. Maybe I was just being envious, or maybe Drew was just being annoying like usual.

"We're here!" said Drew, a smile coming to his face as he looked out of the window. I turned my head and looked out too. There was the station. We had arrived at last.


	6. Conflict On Arrival

Oooh. The story is high-flying! I'm really looking forward to writing more . Also, don't bash me because I paired Ash with Casey. I needed a girl who lived in Johto and she was the only one I could think of. Don't mention the word "Misty", because I can't stand poke shipping.

**Conflict on Arrival**

"Ash!" came a girl's voice as we got off the train. I looked around and saw Casey running towards us. I hadn't seen her before, but I knew how she looked from the various pictures which Ash had taken, a few of which were in my scrapbook. She looked a bit different though. Her hair was still up, but she had ditched her hat and old clothes. She was wearing jeans along with a simple casual top. Ash ran forward and pulled her into a tight hug, leaving me and Drew with his luggage.

Ash was hugging her really tightly and swinging her around a bit. For some reason, this made me feel a bit uncomfortable towards Drew. He seemed to be feeling the same way, considering the fact that he had suddenly become interested in Ash's luggage.

Ash finally let go of Casey and moved towards us, beckoning her to follow.

"Okay," said Ash, "Well, this is Casey… my girlfriend," he pointed out unnecessarily, "Anyway, Casey… this is May, I've told you about her, and this is Drew. Brock couldn't make it, so Drew came along instead… he's a really good trainer, he beat me in my birthday tournament yesterday,".

Casey shook my hand and then went on to shake Drew's. I felt annoyed at how Ash was complimenting Drew… it was as though Drew was the protagonist of our little adventure now.

"Well," said Casey a few minutes later, as we made our way out of the station, "I've booked us into a hotel here. I was traveling all day to get here! I booked two rooms for us, as all of them are double bed rooms. I booked one for me and you and the other for Brock and May, but as Brock couldn't make it, we could always have Drew take his place,"

"Yeah, I'll be glad too," said Drew, "By double beds, you mean two separate beds right? Or do me and May have to sleep in the same one?"

I had been thinking the very same thing. I would rather sleep out on the street than share a bed with Drew. I was already partially annoyed at how I had to share a room with him, let alone a bed.

"Two separate ones!" said Casey, "But if you want, you can push them together like me and Ash are," she added, kissing Ash on the cheek.

"Um," I said, trying to look polite instead of revolted, "No thanks, I like to sleep alone… it's more comfortable,"

Drew nodded next to me. Ash and Casey exchanged glances and I had a feeling that I knew exactly why. They were probably teasing us or something, thinking that we liked each other or something of that sort.

We had hit the streets of Goldenrod city now. It was a really big city, laden with sky scrapers. Whilst it was dark, lights shone all around us, giving the city a glamorous top-notch city effect. A cool breeze cooled my face as I walked.

Casey stopped walking in front of a tall building. It looked really sparkly and new.

"Well," she said, turning and smiling at the rest us, "We're here! 5-star hotel!"

We all walked in behind her and entered the sparkling marble hall. Ash and Casey went forwards to check in so Drew and I stayed back and waited. There were beautiful pictures of different Pokemon lining all of the walls. Drew was also looking around in apparent awe, he was smiling around at the pictures of Pokemon, yet when he looked at one particular picture he just seemed to froze. His eyes were fixed on the picture and then he just turned around and looked at the floor. I noticed that his knuckles were clenched as he looked down.

I moved a bit so I could see the picture which he looked around at. It was an illustration of some kind of war. Two army tanks were facing each other, there were flames in the background and many, many bodies on the floor. The only things that seemed to still be fighting were the two tanks, and underneath the painting there was the caption "Last ones standing," underneath which the words "In honor of the war of Hoenn,". I knew a bit about the war of Hoenn. It had occurred when I was young, but it didn't spread to my home. It happened somewhere near Slateport city, and it was called "The War Of Hoenn," because it was the biggest war that ever occurred in the region. A few soldiers had gone off from Petalburg to fight in it, but there were no shootings or anything in the actual city.

I looked back at Drew. He was now a bit pale. Had something about that painting have done something to him? His hands were now shaking slightly.

"Drew," I said, a little uncertainly, "Are you alright, something looks wrong,"

Drew opened his mouth to speak, but at that moment, Ash and Casey came back.

"Okay!" said Ash, pointing to the elevator, "We've checked in! Rooms 346 and 347, up on the third floor,"

"Are you alright Drew," said Casey, who had also noticed Drew's strange behavior, "You look so pale,"

"What," said Drew, looking up at her in surprise, "Oh, I'm just a little travel sick... that's all, it always happens when I go on long trips," he smiled, but something about his smile looked fake. There was still a trace of illness in his eyes.

When we got to our rooms, Ash and Casey went into room 346 and gave me the key to 347. Drew looked better now, but I was confused about what had happened down in the lobby. There turned out to be an inside door connecting both of our rooms, so we ordered dinner and ate it in privacy. Discussing plans.

"Well," said Casey, "There are no Pokemon contests in Goldenrod city, but there's a really big Mall and there's the park to check out. I checked in to this hotel for two nights, so we have all of tomorrow to do whatever, then on Wednesday morning, we'll leave for Olivine city,"

"Is there a contest there?" I asked. I was excited about entering, but I did want to stay here for a while. I loved big malls.

"Yes," said Casey, "I've also got a holiday house there, with a car! So we don't have to check in to any hotel or anything,"

"Cool," I said, really excited about the adventure ahead.

We finished dinner and got changed into our PJs. I wasn't really tired, because of the timezone change so once I had bid Ash and Casey goodnight, I climbed into bed and opened my scrapbook. I had more photos to stick in. Drew however, seemed to want to go straight to bed.

"May, can we switch of the light?" he said from his bed, "I'm trying to sleep,"

"You know what?" I retorted, not really looking at him, "I don't know how I ended up having to share a room with you… now stop telling me to turn off the light! I'm trying to finish sticking all of these photos into my scrapbook!"

"Why do you bother with that?" Drew asked, "Don't you want to forget about the past, now that it's over?"

I opened my mouth to answer, but before I could, a loud noise interrupted me. It sounded a lot like a gun shot and for one second I was scared. Next minute however, Casey came into our room, looking annoyed.

"Don't mind that, it's just the fireworks at the mall," she said, looking nonplussed, "They put them on every time they open a new shop and it's really annoying… but don't bother going and looking now, they don't make it look very spectacular,"

With that, she left. I fell back into my bed and put my scrapbook away. I was a bit tired now. I moved to turn off the light when my eyes fell on Drew. He was very pale again, and he was shaking once more. He was once again looking down and his knuckles were clenched. It looked like something was troubling him.

"Drew!" I said, a little loudly, "You've seen fireworks before, why are you looking all worried about something,"

"I…" said Drew in a quiet voice, he seemed to be talking to his bedsheets rather than me, "I don't like the sound of gunshots,"

"I thought none of us did," I said, displaying some of Drew's usual arrogance. I seemed to have said the wrong thing though. Because at that moment, Drew looked at me with a look of seriousness, and he said in a very serious tone which seemed to be mixed with sadness,

"May, my parents were killed in that war…"

"What!" I said, a little intrigued by this piece of information.

"You wouldn't understand," said Drew in the same tone. With that, he seized his bedsheet and covered himself and turned himself away from me. I could swear that I heard a sob coming from his way too.

"Wait!" I said, "Drew! I didn't know… I'm sorry," I said pleadingly. Drew didn't answer. Had this been something else, then I wouldn't have really apologized to Drew, but I never knew that he had no parents because of the war. That must have been why Drew had started acting strange when he saw the picture, and why the loud noise seemed to have scared him. War must have affected his life. When something like this happened to someone, I had to pity them. I must have really upset Drew though, because I had never seen him act like that to me before. The seriousness and sadness in his voice was terrible to hear. He just wasn't the Drew I knew when he acted like that. I turned off the light, and I tried to go to sleep, but I couldn't help noticing that it was rather obvious that Drew wasn't sleeping.

Like it? I suppose the real contestshippy starts here. I suppose you're all pitying Drew right now… I most certainly am. I shouldn't have affect his life so badly… but hey… I neeeeed drama. Anyway… next chappy coming tomorrow .


	7. Tragic Pasts

Well guys, it's nice to see that Drew's getting some pity :P. Anyway… here's chapter 6.

When I awoke the next morning, I once again didn't open my eyes straight away. What exactly had happened last night, I didn't know. Was Drew being truthful when he said that parents had been killed in the war? I'm pretty sure that he was, because of his funny behavior. I had gotten a bit scared to see him like that, because he looked so lost. I had always thought Drew to be someone who was always secure, and I felt that if he wasn't secure, then I couldn't be.

Yesterday however, he seemed to look really pale, shaky and ill, and I could swear that I had heard a sob coming from him, was it possible that he had been crying? If I wasn't mistaken, then maybe he didn't even manage to get to sleep for a very long time. I had never seen him like this before, and I hoped that I never would see him like that ever again.

I opened my eyes and looked at Drew's bed. He had already gotten up and made his bed, but I couldn't see him anywhere in the room. I looked towards the bathroom, but the door was open and I could hear no sound from inside. I looked around the room, and then I saw Drew. He was standing outside on the balcony, fully dressed and facing the road.

I climbed out of bed and moved over towards the sliding door. I slid it open and watched Drew for a while, he didn't seem to notice me though. It seemed like he didn't notice anything that was going on. I watched him for about five minutes before I actually spoke.

"Drew…" I said, not knowing exactly what to say. I didn't want him to fire up again, "What happened last night, something wasn't right about you?". Drew turned with abrupt surprise.

"Wasn't it?" he said fiercely, "May, like I said, you don't understand." With that, he walked passed me, back into the room and shut the door. He then collapsed on his bed.

He had said some nasty things to me in the past, but back then it was obvious that he was just playing or having fun. Now it all seemed so serious. I didn't see why he was just firing up at me when I tried to talk to him? Maybe I had really hurt his feelings…

I followed with some hesitation. I felt like Drew might even hit me if I tried to talk to him again. Opening the door slowly, I entered and stood at the end of Drew's bed. He had his eyes closed, but I had a feeling that he did know that I was there this time. I opened my mouth to speak, but at that moment the connecting door to the other room opened and Ash and Casey walked in, both fully dressed and ready for breakfast.

"Aren't you ready yet?" Ash asked, looking at me, still dressed in my sleeping attire, "We're going to have to go down to breakfast soon, before the buffet finishes… get dressed so we can go,"

I looked at Drew, and to my surprise, he had sat up on his bed and he was looking pretty ready. Maybe he was just upset with me, and now that Ash and Casey were here, he had almost gone back to normal. He still looked a bit pale, although Ash and Casey didn't notice anything. I was planning to tell them what had happened though because I didn't understand what was going on yet.

I got dressed quickly and we all went down to breakfast. I didn't get a chance to tell Ash what had happened between me and Drew because Drew was listening, and I didn't want him to get mad with Ash as well. So breakfast passed with normal discussion, and Drew was talking as though nothing had happened.

After breakfast we went and got some shopping done, once again I didn't have a chance to tell Ash anything, and that was mainly because I wanted to shop. I loved shopping, and nothing could stop me, not even Drew's anger. I ended up buying a lot, not really caring for where the others had got to. Ash said that he didn't really mind what I did as long as I made it to the roof-top café by lunchtime.

So at midday, laden with bags full of clothes, sweets and Pokemon dolls, I climbed the many stairs to the roof-top. Ash, Casey and Drew were already there.

"How much did you buy?" asked Casey upon seeing all of the shopping bags.

"A lot," I said, smirking and sitting down, "So… what are we ordering?"

"Well, we've bought fish and chips for us all," said Casey, "Ash told me that you love them,"

"Yes! I love fish and chips," I said, smiling my thanks to Ash.

"Do you have any money left May?" said someone else. I looked up and I found that it was Drew who had spoken. He wasn't looking at me, but at least his arrogant tone had started to come back. It was a bit of a relief to hear it.

"Your order," came another voice. I looked around and saw a waiter, carrying a tray with fish and chips. He put down the food and left. I turned back to Drew,

"Yes, I do… and I plan to get some more shopping done after lunch," I said, helping myself to a plate.

"So Casey, whereabouts do you actually live?" I asked, cutting up my fish.

"Oh," said Casey, dipping one of her chips in sauce, "I'm from New Bark town, but I haven't been there for ages… it's been a while since I saw my parents… what about you?"

"I live in Petalburg city, in Hoenn… my dad's the Gym Leader there… but I haven't seen him for two weeks or so…" I replied, shrugging.

"Cool, I'd love to visit you one day… when I go and collect badges in Hoenn," said Casey, now cutting her own fish.

"You've gotta train a lot for that," said Ash darkly, "May's dad is one of the best Gym Leaders out there,"

Casey gave a little laugh and then turned to Drew, who had eaten more than the rest of us,

"Where do you live?" she asked.

"Oh," said Drew, looking up, "I live in LaRousse city, also in Hoenn… but I haven't seen my parents for seven years now,"

I looked at him in surprise. He was talking about his parents, freely, while yesterday he had gotten annoyed when I tried to ask him what had upset him. I didn't say anything though… I sort of wanted to hear his story without upsetting him again.

"Have you been traveling for that long?" Casey exclaimed, looking at Ash for some reason, as though it was his fault.

"No," said Drew, he heaved a great sigh, "My parents are dead,"

Casey gasped, Ash choked on his fish, and I just stared at Drew. He was talking alright and I secretly hoped that he would tell his whole story.

"What!" said Casey and Ash in unison.

"Yeah," said Drew, looking down. I hoped that he wasn't he going to get all moody again. "My parents were in the army… and when the war started, they were both called to fight… and they were both killed." He seemed to have some difficulty in saying this. He was looking down, so his hair shielded his face from our eyes, but I noticed him raise his hand as to wipe his eyes. I had a feeling that he was really crying this time.

"Oh…" said Casey, "I never knew… I'm so sorry," she said, looking hopeless for something to say.

"I didn't know either…" said Ash, he seemed lost for words too, "I suppose it was just so terrible when you found out,"

"Yeah," said Drew. His voice suggested that he was upset again, "My parents were in the army from even before I was born, and they'd fought in a few wars before the one that killed them… anyway, every time they went and fought, I stayed back with my grandma. This particular time, my grandma received a phone call, and when she told me what happened… I just couldn't remember anything,"

"You poor boy," said Casey, who looked like she too was going to cry, "Your parents were shot right? Or was it a bomb?"

"Case," said Ash, looking at Drew with concern, "Stop asking him questions, I don't think he wants to talk about it… I wouldn't if it was me,"

"Oh… sorry," said Casey, "I've got a big mouth, I'll stop asking questions,"

"Don't worry about it," said Drew. He was still looking down, but I thought that he had stopped crying, "Yeah, they were shot. My dad died instantly, he was shot in the heart, but my mother was taken to hospital… I went to see her, and she died right next to me,"

His throat seemed to become tight as he said it, and he was now shaking a lot. Ash looked around at him seriously,

"Stop talking about it! I know you don't want to, and you look really hurt by it… please don't talk about it," he said seriously, but gently all the same, "Look, we should go and get more shopping done…"

Ash and Casey had both finished eating so they both stood up, and picked up the things which they had already bought. "We're going to go and do some shopping," said Ash firmly, "You guys can go and get more done, or go back to the hotel… May's got the key. Oh, and Drew… please don't feel upset, I'm sorry to have made you talk about that," With that, he left, Casey right behind him. When they had disappeared down the stairway, I looked straight back at Drew, who was still sobbing.

"Drew," I said softly, he looked so hopeless as he sat there, resisting the temptation to cry. He didn't answer, but I decided to keep going with what I was saying, "I think I owe you an apology,"

"Huh?" said Drew, looking up at me. His face was red and tearstruck. I really never expected him to look like this, he was still shaking, but he was looking at me as though he had never seen me before.

"Yeah, I think I was being a bit tactless last night, I didn't know about your parents or anything… Drew, I'm really sorry about what I said to you last night and I feel really sorry about how your parents were killed in that terrible war,"

"You really mean it?" said Drew, the tears had not yet disappeared from his voice.

I nodded. I looked into his eyes, and for the first time I admired their beauty, even if they were slightly red from the crying, they still did have some beauty in them.

"What… oh," he gave me a weak smile, "I think that I should apologize too… for shouting at you like that last night. Usually I'm just playing with you when I seem rude, but yesterday I really think I was nasty to you, and this morning,"

"Don't bother," I said, shaking my head, "My parents aren't dead… if there's anyone you should be feeling sorry for, it's yourself,"

"That's why I started training Pokemon, my parents dying," said Drew, "I lived with my grandma after my parents died, but she died herself two years later, when I was ten… and after that I just felt lonely, as though nobody who loved me and cared about me was alive and there for me… Roselia was my mother's, and her will said that it would go to me. I took it and began my journey with Pokemon, every time I win a contest, I dedicate it to my parents,"

"I'm sure that they're proud of you," I said, smiling. Here I was, having a proper conversation with Drew, with absolutely no arrogance involved whatsoever.

"You think that they'd know what I'm doing?" Drew asked, looking up at the sky.

"Of course I do," I said firmly, "They're always going to be with you,". My father had told me this when our pet dog had died back when I was seven years old.

"May…" said Drew standing up and looking over the fence. There was a beautiful view of Goldenrod city from the roof-top.

"Mhmm," I said, standing up and joining him. I could see very far away from up here, mountains, cities and seas. Drew was looking around at the scene in awe as well,

"You remind me of my mother," he said, now looking at me and smiling warmly, it was the first time I had ever seen him do so.

"What?" I said, a little intrigued about what he had just said, "No… do I?"

"Yeah, you do," said Drew, "My mother was always there to comfort me when I got upset or sad… my grandma was like that too… I would never have survived the death of my parents if it wasn't for her…"

I didn't know what to say. Drew thought that I was like his mother, whom he clearly loved so much. Did that mean that he loved me? No, he was probably just using that phrase because I cared like his mother… he didn't actually love me like he loved his mother.

"Oh… I really don't know what to say," I said, now lost to the point that I was voicing it.

"May, I really like you," said Drew, now going slightly red, "You're there for me, like my mother was,"

_I really like you…_No. He couldn't like me that much… just a day ago we were rivals.

"No…. don't say you love me!" I said, "In the past we've never been friends, never, we were always on opposing sides,"

"I've always liked you May," said Drew, "but I couldn't admit it… I've got a bit of a problem with being really social, after what happened to my parents, and I couldn't come up and talk to you… it was like what happened between you and Harley a few days ago. I couldn't go and talk to you, so I tried to push you away,"

"Why do you like me though?" I asked, a little loudly. I was very confused with him now.

"From the start I knew you were a caring person, and I was right… you saved my life on Mirage Island," Drew replied, "I just couldn't talk to you… but that proved that you liked me, or at least, you would risk your life for me,"

"Yes, but I just didn't want you to die," I said impatiently, I liked Drew, but I didn't want him to fall for someone like me, not after everything that had happened in his life, "I can't stand it when people die… I'd take it worse than you took the death of your parents!"

"May," said Drew with a sigh, he was shaking again, "Do you like me?"

"I…yes… but," I stuttered. I didn't know what he was coming to, but I really didn't want it to turn in to anything to do with love.

Drew turned full on towards me and then he took my hands with his own shaking ones. I didn't have to look at my own face to know that it had gone bright red. Drew looked into my eyes, and I looked into his beautiful ones, what was going on?

"I'll never find anyone more like my mother," he said, his eyes watering, "She joined the army because she didn't want everyone else to die, just like you, and you are the only person I've found who cares for me like my mother did,"

His voice was shaky now. I didn't want him to get all emotional again,

"May," he said, "Will you be my girlfriend?"

I couldn't believe it. Drew had asked me if I wanted to be his girlfriend. Yet, I felt like I had to say yes. He found me like his mother, and I knew from all of his emotion that he dearly loved his mother. I just wanted to help him, and so I nodded.

"Yes," I muttered, leaning in and kissing him.

_There you go guys o, I have started the romance! Don't worry… Drew will eventually go back to his normal self. I was listening to "Wake Me Up When September Ends" by Greenday when I wrote that up, so that's where the 7 years came from. Drew is now 15, like May so he was 8 when his parents died. That's not the end of the drama though… it's only the start of it. _


	8. Making Bonds

As soon as my lips touched those of Drew's, I felt as though some connection had started between the two of us. I felt as though the touch of his soft lips had put something into my heart. Now I felt like I really loved him, and I wasn't just sympathizing him. I looked into his dazzling face, now stricken with tears and red in places. I really loved him now, I really did.

Yet, I was still taken by surprise when he chose to put his arms around me. He slid them around my body smoothly, and had them rest on my back. He had stopped shaking, but his face was still looking teary. I wanted him to stop crying, I wanted him to be happy. At that moment, he brought his lips away from mine, and he whispered to me,

"Do you really love me? Or are you just trying to make me feel better,"

I had half hoped that he would ask this, because now I had an answer.

"Yes," I whispered back, putting my own arms around him and putting me lips on to his.

It was funny though. I never imagined myself to be with Drew, I had always thought that he found himself greater than me, but now it seemed like he was just a young boy who needed someone to look after him. I never knew that he had started his Pokemon journey because he was just lonely. I truly felt sorry for him, and I truly loved him.

It seemed like an eternity before we finally broke apart. Drew pulled his lips away from mine, and I knew that the kiss was over. I lowered my hands and Drew did the same with his… and with that, we broke apart. Drew had pretty much stopped crying. He began to wipe his eyes on his sleeve.

"Here," I said, taking my handkerchief out, "Use this… don't wreck your clothes,"

"Oh, thanks," said Drew, taking my hanky and wiping his face, "Where are we going to go now,"

"Let's go back to the hotel," I said shrugging, "I don't really fancy shopping anymore,"

I moved back towards the table and picked up all of the things which I had bought.

"Are you sure?" asked Drew, "I thought you loved shopping… don't stop just because of me,"

"Yeah," I replied. All of the bags seemed to belong to me, "Didn't you buy anything Drew?"

"Nah, I don't like shopping," said Drew, "I don't know why girls are so obsessed with it… anyway, do you want me to help you carry those,"

"Erm, okay," I said, a little glad that Drew was offering. I had a feeling that I had bought too much.

It didn't take us that long to get back to the hotel, and when we did, it was obvious that Drew was avoiding having to look at the painting of the war. I was glad of this, because I didn't want the topic to go back to Drew's tragic past. I felt terrible when he talked about that, because I had a family while he didn't. When we got up to our room, I dropped all of my merchandise next to my bed and collapsed onto it. Drew however strode to my end table and picked up my scrapbook and took it to his bed.

"What are you doing with that?" I asked, watching him fall onto his own bed and flick open my book.

"Just looking," he said, going through the pages fast. I was confused once again, yesterday he had said _"Don't you just want to forget about everything once it's happened?"_ I was a bit confused at why he was looking at my scrapbook, while yesterday he had told me off for writing in it.

Then it seemed to fall into place. With a life as tragic as his, I supposed that he would want to forget everything that had happened to him and just start again.

"It's just you and your brother… you don't have anymore siblings, do you?" Drew asked from his bed. He had stopped on a photo of my family.

"Yeah, just the two of us," I said a little quickly. I didn't want Drew to start feeling jealous of me or something.

"Oh, I see," said Drew, "I'm an only child… my parents wanted to have more kids though, it's just that they didn't get enough time,"

Drew had hit the topic of his parents again. I didn't understand how he had never talked about this before though. In the past, he had never mentioned anything of this sort, and he was really positive about life. His parents had died before he had met me though, so that's where I was stumped.

"You were eight when they died though, right?" I said casually, "Then they should have had time to have at least one more child… Max and I are only two years apart,"

"Yeah, I suppose," said Drew quietly, staring fixedly at the photo of my family, "…but it's really a lot of service when you're in the army. You don't have much time for other things. My mum couldn't do any work for a few months after I was born because she needed to get fit again, only when she was eligible to go back, she was just as active as ever,"

"So I'm guessing that you didn't really see your parents much," I said. It seemed like his life couldn't get any worse, with both parents working with the strict rules of the army.

"They both spent as much time as they could with me… they always wanted children, and I was their only one, it's just that you didn't have much time when they were with the army,"

Drew's voice was quite steady this time, but it was lacking enthusiasm and happiness. I could tell that deep down inside, he was crying as he told me this. He leant over to his end table and picked up his bag, he rummaged with it for a while and then pulled out a photo frame and handed it to me.

It was a photo of a handsome man with curly brown hair who had his arm around a beautiful lady with long green hair. She was holding a small boy, who looked around the age of six. He had green hair like the woman who was holding him and a similar facial structure of the man behind him. They were all smiling, and I could tell that this photo was taken by professionals. I also knew who the people in this photo were, there was no mistaking it. The little boy was almost certainly a younger Drew, and the man and the woman must have been his parents. They all looked so happy together, and looking at the photo made me want to cry.

"Is this your family?" I asked, half hoping that it wasn't. I didn't like to think that these people were no longer together.

"Yeah," said Drew with a sigh, "That was taken when I was six years old,"

"You look so sweet," I said. My throat was feeling very tight now, I handed the photo back to Drew and wiped my eyes. Drew carefully put the photo back into his bag and turned back to my scrapbook. He turned another page,

"This was taken at the Slateport contest years ago, right?" he said, showing me one of the photos.

"Yeah," I said nodding. I suddenly remembered something, "That was where we met… I took that photo mere minutes before I met you,"

"I still remember saying that you weren't going to get anywhere with Pokemon like that," said Drew with a guilty smile.

"Oh yeah," I said, remembering something else, "You know how we're going out… I'm not going to go easy on you in any of these contests, okay, and I don't want you to go easy on me,"

"What makes you that I'd do that," said Drew in his old arrogant tone, he even added a flick of his hair and looked at me in the way that he always used to.

I tried to resist laughing. This was just how things used to be, and watching Drew do that to me was just funny. A smirk slowly came to Drew's face, and next thing we knew we were both just laughing our heads off.

"Sweet old times," I said through loud laughter. Drew nodded while roaring with his own laughter.

"Come here May," he said, through more laughs. I don't know what made me do it, but I leapt off my bed and virtually jumped on him. I was lying on top of him now, both of us still laughing and our voices full of laughter.

"I love you May," said Drew, who was smiling widely. Just like he had in that photo.

"I love you too," I said back to him. Here we were, lying on top of each other in bed, laughing and smiling. This was what I had wanted, I preferred this to Drew crying onto my shoulder.

"Hey May," said Drew, looking at me thoughtfully, there was still laughter in his face, "Now that we're here, do you want to do the thing that all couples do at some point or another,"

"What? Get married?" I said stupidly, "Oh wait, you mean the other thing… well, shouldn't we lock the door first,"

"Oh never mind that," said Drew, holding me closer to himself,

"Aren't we going to mess up the sheets though?" I said, still laughing slightly. Maybe I was just playing with him, I sort of wanted to do this.

"Oh, who cares," said Drew, "Or are you scared?"

"No!" I said, in a mock fierce voice, "Let's just get this party started,"

And so, that was how I had the most fun I had ever had with Drew. As Ash had said, he really was a nice guy, and as Ash had predicted, we had made friends on the journey. In fact, we had become a little closer than friends.

Yes everyone! Chapter finished. No, the ending of the chapter might seem like the story's conclusion, but fear not, we're not even half-way :P.


	9. The Simple Life

Chapter 8 – The Simple Life

Here's a small note on this chapter. While earlier on, I said that Drew was eight when his parents were killed, I've changed it to five. Why? Because I thought it would be sweeter if he was a little younger. If he was eight, then he'd have a bigger idea of what dying meant, which I didn't really want. Thanks .

"Wake up May, we've got to go, check-out in an hour," came a voice.

He was waking me up for the third day in a row. This was the thing about traveling with Ash. He liked to make you do things. I didn't open my eyes though… I was too tired.

"Five more minutes," I muttered, rolling over.

This was when I felt someone else get onto my bed and press their head against mine, they put their arm around my body…

"I know you want to sleep, but we've really got to go," they repeated, this time in a gentler tone.

I opened my eyes and I found that it was Drew who had woken me, not Ash.

"Oh," I said, giving him a small smile, "It's you... good morning,"

"I love you May," Drew breathed onto my face before planting a kiss on my cheek, "Now wake up, we better get going,"

He got up and moved away. I sat up in bed and stretched. We were leaving for Olivine city today, the place where the contest would be held in exactly one week. It had been years since I entered in a Pokemon contest, and I was really looking forward to it.

"Where are Ash and Casey?" I asked sleepily, climbing out of bed. We hadn't told them that we were going out, they would surely use the information to tease us. They hadn't walked in on our "encounter" yesterday, but entered the room mere moments after it, before we had even fixed our clothes.

"They're next door, collecting their things, but they want us to hurry up… apparently we're buying breakfast on the way again,"

"Oh, okay," I said, nodding. You knew you were getting old when you had this sort of déjà vu in your life.

Once again, I got dressed and prepared rather quickly. I hadn't taken anything out of my bag, except for my scrapbook. The problem arised when my eyes fell on all the things I had bought yesterday.

"Ugh," I said, looking at what I now knew to be a massive overload of items, "How am I supposed to fit all of this into my bag,"

"I could squeeze some things into mine," said Drew thoughtfully, "I don't have much in there,"

I laughed. "You're so simple Drew… that's what I love about you,"

"Simple?" said Drew, turning sharply. He probably hadn't expected my remark, "What do you mean by simple?"

"I mean that you just get along with things, and you let nothing stop you… you just take everything so simply… it's just calming you do that,"

"What?" said Drew, "Me? Simple? I don't take everything easily…"

"Yes you do," I said, putting my arms around him, holding him in embrace, "I love you because of that,"

"I nearly stopped that day, years ago… when I found out that my parents were dead,"

FLASHBACK

It was a warm summer's day in LaRousse city. An old woman could be seen through the window of a charming a house, she was washing dishes and humming merrily to herself. She was pretty much alone, except for her grandson Drew who had just turned five a few weeks ago. He was in another room though, enjoying himself.

The old woman was quite happy that her young grandson was having fun. His parents were in the army, and had been gone for a few months now. They were fighting in a tough war, and nobody knew whether they'd make it out alive. Everyone was pretty sure that they'd survive though, they were both the fittest they could get, and both were well on their ways to becoming generals.

This left them with very little time for their beloved son, and while they tried to spend as much time as possible with him, their time was limited because of wars and camps. Drew only got to see his parents for about half a year, sometimes even less. They had never been gone for three months altogether before though, but this war was meant to be fierce. It didn't even involve LaRousse city, but they were still called to fight, meaning it had to be pretty big.

Drew was too young to understand the risk his parents were taking, and his grandmother was inwardly glad of that. She didn't want Drew to worry about anything when he was only five years old. He loved his parents, and whenever they would come home from one of their "adventures", he would just laugh and run to the door, almost crying with happiness. His grandmother would just watch as his father would just pick him up and hug him, while his mother would wait impatiently to do the same thing.

Yet, on this particular day, that did not happen. While Drew's grandmother was washing the dishes, the phone call came. The phone call that would end everything. The old woman moved to answer the ringing phone, and when she picked it up, the voice that told her the terrible news answered her.

The woman said hello, and supposedly, someone answered her, but not with another hello for the next second, the old woman gasped.

"When did this happen?" she asked, her voice all shaky. The person on the other end, said something else, and next second, the old woman was crying.

"No… it can't be…." She whispered, putting down the phone. The person who had rung was the General of the Army. He had told her the words which she did not want to hear. Her son, Nicholas Adams, and his wife Deanna Adams, had both been shot while carrying out their work. Nicholas had died on the spot, and Deanna was barely alive and in hospital. She was in the LaRousse hospital though, and the old woman knew that she could still go and see her daughter in law. She had to go, and she had to bring Drew. She didn't want to tell Drew though, but she had to. She knew that Drew's mother would like to see her precious son, before she too passed away.

"Drew," called the old woman in the loudest voice she could muster, "Can you come here please?" She dreaded telling him the news. He was too young to understand.

The small boy walked into the room. He was looking quite cheerful. His grandmother knew that it would devastate him if she told him the news. She couldn't quite manage it yet.

"Why are you crying nana?" the boy asked innocently, "Did you hurt yourself?"

"No," said his grandmother. She couldn't tell him, he was just too happy to be ruined by this news, "Can you get in the car please, we're going to have to go out,"

"Why?" said Drew, his voice just as curious as an average child his age.

"Just get in please," the woman repeated, opening the door and ushering him out.

"Okay," said the boy smiling at her, "Mummy said it's not good to cry though, so can you please stop? A smile can make a difference!"

His grandmother couldn't take it any longer, she seized Drew and bent down, pulling him into a tight hug. She loved him so much, everyone who knew him did. He was just the most adorable and innocent little boy anywhere, a sweet face and small stature, he looked cute. Everyone would always adore how he got along with life so well and was always smiling, despite the fact that he rarely saw his parents.

"Drew," the old woman said gently to the small boy in her arms, "There's something I have to tell you,"

"What is it nana?" Drew replied, his voice still sounding cutely confused.

"Do you remember what happened to grandpa two years ago, how one day he went to hospital, and after that you couldn't talk to him," said his grandmother. Drew had been three years old when her husband had died from a heart attack, but his parents had been there that time.

"Yes, he died, didn't he?" said Drew in his sweet little voice, "Mummy told me what dying means when we went to the army headquarters the other day, everyone had to stand up and put their hands together to remember those who died,"

His grandmother was a little shocked about the fact that he knew what it meant. It would most likely cause him to take the shock even harder,

"A lot of people do die in war, and well…" said the woman, trembling as she held on to her grandson, "Oh Drew…. your father was shot in that war, and he died… as for your mother, she's alive in hospital, but she might die soon… we're going to see her,"

END FLASHBACK

"…when she told me that, I couldn't move for a while… I didn't understand at first… my parents always came back. Then the truth sank in, and before I knew it, I was in the hospital, being hugged tightly by my dying mother…."

FLASHBACK

"Oh Drew, my precious little baby," said the woman weakly as she hugged the small boy. This woman was a lot younger than Drew's grandmother. She was his actual mother, she was dying, her wounds couldn't be healed and most likely, she would die. She held her only son closer to her chest and hugged him ever so tight. He was in tears, he didn't want her to leave him.

"Mummy," he said, struggling to speak through his tears, "Do you have to die?"

"Oh, I'll never leave you baby," said the woman, shaking her head as she caressed her son's cheek. She loved him so much. She had always wanted children, and he was her only one. Her pride and joy, "I'll always be with you… in here," she pressed her hand, covered in her own blood to his heart.

"Mummy!" screamed the boy, tears now pouring from his face, fast and rapidly. His mother fell back on to her bed, and then Drew knew that her life was very close to being over.

"I'm sorry Drew," she muttered weakly. No sooner had she said it, her eyes came to a close and her chest stopped moving. She had died, and Drew knew it.

"MUMMY!" he screamed, falling on top of her body, tears leaking from his red eyes. His grandmother moved forward and pulled him into a hug, she knew that this memory would haunt him forever.

END FLASHBACK.

"Aww, that's terrible," I said, wiping a tear from my own eye, "But you're okay now, you're still here… a lot of kids just can't cope after that sort of thing happens, and then you know… they kill themselves,"

"But the memory's still here," said Drew, tears coming to his face, "And I still feel lonely sometimes… I really miss my parents,"

"I see that… and I feel really sorry for you," I muttered, "But I don't want you to feel lonely, I'll be here for you," I caressed his face, just like his mother had, many years before.

"Thanks," said Drew, a little helplessly, he gave me a little smile.

"I think I spoke too soon, maybe your life isn't so simple," I said, giving him a little kiss on the cheek.

"Yeah," said Drew heavily, "I wish I could have one though,"

"You're just too sweet," I whispered, withdrawing and taking a step back, "I think we should get going,"

"WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING IN THERE?" came Ash's roaring voice from the next room.

"Yeah," said Drew, blushing slightly, "We better get going,"

So… what do you think? That chapter was a little insight into how it was the day Drew's parents died. I wanted to make him as cute as possible! Anyway… another chapter coming tomorrow ).


	10. Reunions, Reunions!

"We're here!" said Ash as we stepped off the main road and onto a brick path. The smell of sea water hit my nostrils the moment we entered Olivine city.

It was quite different compared to Goldenrod city, which was very urban and metro. We'd been traveling for maybe two hours, and we had finally arrived. Olivine city had many palm trees and in the distance, we could see a beautiful beach.

Salt water had that sort of smell, the one that told you that you were in a new place. You'd eventually get used to the smell, and then you'd get sick of it, especially if you stayed for a long time.

We were just staying for a week or so though. It was Tuesday, and the contest was being held on Saturday. We were planning to set out early next week, the date depending on how the contest turned out. Drew was smiling around at the surroundings. We still hadn't told Ash and Casey about our relationship yet, when Ash had kicked the door open to find out what had taken us so long, we had just told them that we had been packing all of the things that I had bought at the mall.

"My holiday house is down near the beach… you get a good view of the lighthouse from there," said Casey, hurrying us forward.

"Cool," I said. I had always looked forward to getting a little tan on the beach and getting some swimming done. I had eaten a lot in the past few days, and I had a feeling that I was getting fat.

We kept on walking down the road, I saw many people sun bathing, swimming and playing with their children in this fabulous beach city. It was very warm in weather too, Drew had said something about it being Summer in Johto, and I was glad. You couldn't go to the beach unless it was summer.

At last we arrived at a row of identical houses, lined neatly against a road next to the shore.

"We're in the third house, over there," said Casey, pointing to one of the houses. On the driveway there was a sparkling convertible which was black in color.

"Woah!" said Ash, running forward and looking at the car, "Casey… the car's just beautiful! Where'd you get it?"

"From my father for my sixteenth birthday, here in Johto, we can drive as soon as we're sixteen. I brought it here and left it, and I thought we'd take it everywhere else… I didn't bother bring it to Goldenrod, that place has got the most lousy traffic anywhere,"

"Cool," said Ash, "Can I have a drive later?" Ash had attended several months of drivers ed. He had nearly finished his course, too.

"I suppose… this place has virtually no law and order. That's the problem with Johto, there are a lot of criminals," said Casey, putting the key into the door lock of the house.

"Really?" said Ash, "Like Team Rocket?"

"No… Team Rocket doesn't ever come here… it's more Leila Jones around here,"

"Who the hell is Leila Jones?" I asked, I loved to read about what was going on, I was interested in murder stories, and Leila Jones just sounded like the name of a famous criminal.

"Haven't you heard? She's an outlaw around here," said Casey, pausing as she turned the key in the lock, "She's known for stealing Pokemon,"

"Like Team Rocket?" asked Drew.

"No," said Casey, "She's much, much worse… she's known for stealing Pokemon from the trainers and then harming the trainers as they tried to get their Pokemon back. She's stabbed about five people now… one of them didn't survive,"

"Haven't the police caught her?" asked Drew, horrified. The killing of his parents probably caused him to have something against people who did that sort of thing.

"No… she just escapes… always. She's just harming trainers and getting away… the thing is, she's never gotten anyone's Pokemon, because she always seems to waste no time in fleeing. It's like she just takes the Pokemon to provoke trainers and then she'll hurt the trainers in the worst way possible…" said Casey, "The Police have finally gotten something done… they've said that no one should approach Leila Jones, and that they should just call them. It's a waste of time, as by the time the police actually get there, Leila's gone,"

"Ouch," I muttered, not really wanting to hear much more of this, "Let's just go inside,"

"Oh, yeah," said Casey with a guilty smile, she had evidently forgotten that she was meant to be opening the door, "Come on in,"

She pushed the door open, and I looked into the place where I would stay for the next week. It had an exotic feeling to it, the floorboards were made of a pale wood and the walls were silver. The floor was laden with white couches.

"Wow!" I said, awestruck about the pacific beauty of the house. The feeling of a new place began to fill me, and I just couldn't wait to get exploring.

"You guys don't mind sharing a room again, do you?" said Casey, "Because there are two rooms again… one with a double bed, which me and Ash will use and then there's another one with two single beds,"

I had a mindless urge to say that Drew and I wouldn't mind the double bed room, but I resisted.

It took us half an hour to get our stuff sorted. Once we were done, Casey squeezed some lemonade, and we all decided to sit down and drink some while discussing our plans for the day.

"So, what are we going to do?" said Casey, sipping her lemonade.

"Well, we've still got to have lunch," said Drew.

"I wanna go to the beach," I said, really wanting to show my swimsuit off to Drew for some reason.

"We could go down to the beach and get fish and chips there… I saw a shop for them while we were coming down here,"

"Fish and Chips? Again?" said Casey, looking at Ash with a sort of horrified apprehension, "We had fish and chips yesterday? Aren't you getting sick of them?"

"Fish and Chips sounds great," I said loudly. Casey spit out some of her lemonade.

"Yeah, what's wrong with fish and chips?" said Drew with a smirk. Casey shrugged,

"Nothing… I'm just saying, don't you like variety,"

"Who needs variety when you can have fish and chips?" said Ash skeptically.

So it was agreed. We were going down to the beach and were planning to have fish and chips. Casey had eventually agreed, when Ash had told her that she could get calamari instead. Apparently, Casey was a great fan of calamari. Once we had all dressed in our beachwear, we headed down to the beach. I loved the feeling when you could brush your feet against the sand.

"Oh wow… it's so warm!" I said, glad that it was still warm, "I'm going to sunbathe,"

"Okay, cool… we'll get lunch soon," said Ash.

With that, I found a patch of sand right under the radiant sunshine, and I put down my towel. I took off my shirt and skirt, and lay myself down onto my soft towel.

This really was paradise. There were no real beaches in Hoenn, except for the one in Slateport city. That was a big beach, but we rarely ever went there. My dad had some sort of allergy to sand which caused his skin to get all irritant. Max had a similar problem, although his was milder… he'd just get a little itchy. Now I was alone though, and I could pretty much do anything I wanted. There absolutely nothing to worry about right now… nothing at all…

SPLASH!

The cool sensation of water hit my exposed stomach. I opened my eyes and saw Drew above me, he had evidently been the one who had splashed me. He was soaking wet, as though he had just gone for a swim.

"Drew!" I shouted, a little outraged, "You ruined my tan!"

"Okay, okay," said Drew with a little laugh, "It's just that it's getting boring watching you sun bathe… why on earth do girls care about this sort of thing too much?"

"Because they do," I said with a little smirk. I wasn't angry at Drew for not knowing why… there were many things that I didn't understand about males, "Where are Ash and Casey?"

"They've bought lunch," said Drew, "They told me to come and call you,"

"Okay," I said, getting up and looking at my unsuccessful tan. I'd just have to come back later and finish, whether Drew understood or not. There were thing that boys didn't understand, if they didn't understand then they shouldn't meddle with it.

"There you are," said Ash, as we approached the place they had set up for a picnic, "What took you so long? Your food was getting cold,"

"May was sunbathing," said Drew with his old arrogant smile. I knew that he could still be his old self at times, and it wasn't really a happy thought.

"Hey guys," said Casey, looking from Drew to me, "I've been watching you two, and you've been acting oddly… friendly with each other… there isn't anything going on between you… is there?"

Uh oh. Unlike Ash, Casey had the sense to notice this sort of thing. It wasn't really a good thing though. I didn't feel quite ready to admit this sort of thing to her… yet.

"Well, of course it's odd to see the two of us being friendly to each other… we never really got on very well," I said, taking my serving of fish and chips.

"Piss off!" said Ash. For a second I thought he was talking to me, but upon looking up I found that he had spoken to a Wingull. Apparently, it had tried to steal his chips. He was waving his hand around, trying to get the Pokemon to go away.

"I told fish and chips wasn't a good idea," said Casey with a smirk of her own. Drew and I laughed.

To Ash's dismay, the Wingull had apparently got annoying with his attempt to shoo it away. It let out a long cry and no sooner had it done that, did three more Wingull come out and swoop on Ash.

"Erureido, use Psychic!"

The Wingull which Ash was frantically trying to get rid of glowed an eerie blue for a few seconds, and then they seemed to move slowly backwards and away from Ash. I looked around to see who exactly had caused that to happen, and I saw a boy standing not far off.

He was about the same height as me and he had dark hair which fell to his shoulders, and wore a plain black shirt on top dark jeans. He was dark wearing sunglasses. Standing next to him was a Pokemon which I knew as Erureido, the male form of Gardevoir. The boy looked somewhat handsome but cool all the same. I had a feeling that I had seen him before.

"Now leave him alone," said the boy to the Wingull. They seemed to be scared of him, for they nodded their heads frantically and flew off.

"Thanks," said Ash, without looking at the boy. He went back to his chips.

"Do I know you?" I asked, looking at him. The boy smirked at me,

"Can't you even notice your own brother?" said the boy, whipping off his sunglasses, "Long time know see May,"

It was Max. I could tell from something about him, maybe it was the fact that he knew my name. He had grown so much over a course of three years. He was as tall as me and his face was mature.

"Max!" I shouted, running up to him, "How on earth did you find us here… weren't you on Mirage Island virtually three days ago?"

"Max?" said Ash, looking around. His eyes fell on the boy who I had just found to be my brother, and he virtually jumped back in his seat in astonishment, "You're not Max… you can't be Max,"

"It's me Ash," said Max, with a little smirk, "I heard from an old friend of ours from Pacifidlog Town that you had sent her an e-mail, saying that you were going to enter the contest here. Didn't you know? There's a ferry from Pacifidlog town to Olivine City… so I decided to take it,"

"May!" said Casey, running up to shake Max's hand, "Is this your brother? Wow… he's pretty hot,"

"HEY!" shouted Ash, looking at his girlfriend scornfully. He dragged Casey away from Max and began to give her some sort of lecture.

"Oh, hi Max," said Drew, who had also joined my side, "It's been a while… I suppose you remember me,"

"Oh! It's you Drew," said Max, shaking Drew's hand as well, "Yeah, it has been a while… May's told me how much she's missed you,"

"Wait…" said Max. He closed his eyes, as though sensing something, "You two are going out… aren't you?"

"WHAT!" I shouted, a little loudly, "How did you find that out? It's like you can read my mind,"

"So I'm taking it that you two are really going out?" said Max, "You don't need to know how I found that out,"

"YES, I do!" I said in a slightly aggravated tone, "You're not normal Max… the way you figured that out, and the way those Wingull seemed to be scared of you… it's not just some stupid coincidence… is it?"

"Well…" said Max hesitantly, "The truth is… I'm Psychic"


	11. Sibling Rivalry

10 chapters + Prologue, this is the longest thing I've ever written. Before I started with Pokemon, I wrote Harry Potter fanfiction (Which you can find on my account, Ariados. I wouldn't recommend reading it though), and I was really bad at it. I could never think up a plot any longer than seven chapters long, and back then, all of the chapters were about three pages in word. With this story, I'm not even half done, and the chapters have an average of five pages. I've fully established the plot now, so I won't give up. Hopefully, I'll have this finished (I've planned for about 22 chapters) by Christmas.

"You're WHAT!?!" I shouted, finding that Drew had said the exact same thing at the same time. I wasn't exactly sure about psychics, whether they were real or not. There wasn't much proof. Yet, my own brother coming and telling me that he was a psychic was just scary.

"Psychic… yeah," said Max, sighing, "I found out four years ago… when I started my Pokemon journey,"

Max was almost fourteen years old and I was nearly sixteen. There were only two years in between us, but now Max looked older than me. He had grown so much taller in just four years, and his voice wasn't as high anymore either. There was something else different about him too…

"What do you mean you _found out_?" I asked, half hoping he was just teasing. Then the other thing that had changed about him hit me, "And what happened to your glasses?"

"Contact Lenses," said Max, smirking slightly, "Anyway… When I first started my Pokemon journey, I wanted to know something… why psychic Pokemon like Ralts, Deoxys and Jirachi always seemed to understand me and I could understand them,"

"Mhmm," I murmured, sitting back down and beckoning Drew and Max to do the same "Go on,"

"I went and talked to Professor Birch about it, and he said that few trainers experience it, and it usually has to do with the trainer, not the Pokemon -"

"What's going on?" said Ash, who with Casey had just strode back to the table. They both sat down.

"Apparently, Max is psychic," I said simply, "He got all curious about how psychic Pokemon could communicate with him and apparently he went and told Professor Birch… he's going to tell us what happened next," I smirked at Max.

"Really?" said Ash, "You're Psychic?". Ash wasn't a big fan of Psychic Pokemon, seeing as Mewtwo and others weren't very friendly with him.

"Just go on with the story Max," I said impatiently. I wanted to hear the rest of it.

"Okay," said Max, nodding, "Well, Birch sent me to this place where they specialized in paranormal behavior… I had to get some tests done and-"

"What sort of tests?" asked Drew, apparently interested. I wished that people would stop interrupting Max and his story.

"Um, they asked me all of these questions about the location of people on the other side of the world and then they asked me to close my eyes and tell them how many fingers they were holding up… they also told me to try and tell them what they were thinking… Oh, and they made me try and command Pokemon without actually talking" said Max, shrugging now, "There were a lot of weird things,"

"Did you manage to do it all though?" said Casey, who was also looking rather interested.

"Strangely enough, I did," said Max, "I was pretty astounded really… so after I did three days worth of tests, they finally told me that I was psychic… in the extreme,"

"What do they mean by _in the extreme_?" I asked, hoping that it wasn't anything too far-fetched.

"It means I can do a lot of things," said Max. This time however, he didn't open his mouth. His voice just seemed to fill my head though.

"What the hell?" spluttered Ash, through his cordial.

"How'd you do that?" exclaimed Casey. She choked on some fish and started coughing.

"That's just scary!" shouted Drew. He just stared at Max as though he was mad.

Obviously, they had all heard Max speak without opening his mouth, meaning that I hadn't just had a hallucination.

"That's what I mean," said Max, opening his mouth to speak again, "That's telepathy,"

"Wow!" said Casey, emerging for her choking fit, "I'd love to be able to perform telepathy… It would be useful when communicating with Pokemon… anyway, is there anything else you can do?"

"Yeah," said Max, I noticed that he was looking a bit gloomy about it though. He picked up Casey's spoon, "Mind if I borrow this?"

"Oh Max," said Ash, "Don't tell me you can bend spoons?"

Max gave a little sigh and stared intently at the spoon. We just watched him stare at it for five seconds or so, but then the most extraordinary thing happened – Max didn't just bend the spoon, he had it tie itself in a knot. He made it seem like it made of rubber.

"Woah… now THAT is scary," said Ash, taking the spoon from Max and trying to bend it with his own hands, "What the hell? You made it look all soft!"

"It's cool though," said Casey, nodding, "Does that still go under telepathy?"

"No, its telekinesis," said Max, "It's a different field of psychic behavior. Most psychics are only able to do one or the other… but I can do both,"

Drew whistled, "But I thought telekinesis was-"

"This?" said Max, turning and staring at Ash's hat. Sure enough, the hat seemed to lift off his head. It floated towards Drew's head in mid-air, and then landed quite nicely.

"That is seriously wild," said Casey in awe, "I'd love to be able to do that,"

"It isn't all that great," said Max, "Everyone tends to think that I'm weird…that's why I never told you before this…"

"It is weird, but that's what's so impressive about it!" said Drew, smiling, "Anyway… you're here to watch May and I in the contest right?"

"No," said Max, "I'm going to enter it,"

"Really?" I said, a little loudly, "Is this your first contest?"

"No way," said Max. He picked up his bag and rummaged around, pulling out a case. He opened it, to reveal five sparkling ribbons, "These are my Hoenn ribbons… I've earned pretty much all of them in the last three months,"

"Why'd you come here then?" I asked, a little astounded, "Have you entered the Hoenn grand festival yet?"

"No," said Max, "It's not for another eight months… so I thought I'd come and get some ribbons here,"

"Max, it isn't that easy… you might have gotten lucky and earned all of those ribbons in three months flat, but I think you should have stayed in Hoenn and just entered more contests, that way you wouldn't risk missing the grand festival,"

"Sheesh May, I'll go back a month before the festival… If you haven't noticed, I've grown up now. I don't need you telling me what I should and shouldn't do!"

"There's still a chance something could go wrong! What if the Grand Festival was brought to an earlier date? Although, I wouldn't put it past you to know how to teleport,"

"What are you talking about? I can't teleport! There isn't a single human who can!" shouted Max hotly, he stood up. In the past, it would be funny, but now he was as tall as me, but now I felt short compared to him, "See… you're making fun of me because you think I'm weird!"

"No! I'm just saying it takes skill to win a Pokemon contest! Not just luck," I shouted back, standing up. In the past, Max would always back down when I shouted at him. Now he had changed, he was still standing tall.

"You were depending on luck all those years ago when you expected to win on assist and metronome! You hypocrite,"

"At least I did that IN the contest itself. You're practically thinking up strategies before the contest date has even been set! Although, I suppose you can predict the future too…"

"I'm not predicting the future! I'm just saying that I have perfect right to do what I want, I'm not a little kid who mum wants you to look after anymore,"

"Max! I never said that you had to listen to me! I'm saying it's for the best,"

"May," said Max, now slowing down a little bit, "One thing that I can do is read your mind, and I know you're saying that because you think you're better me, and you don't want me to make you seem weak,"

What? Max must have been making that up. I couldn't deny that he could read my mind, but I wasn't thinking that? Or was I? Was this like the fiasco that had happened with Harley the other day? Ash, Casey and Drew were looking from me to Max and back again, as though it was a tennis match.

"Max," I said, catching my breath, "I'm just saying that you haven't had as much experience as-"

"So you're calling me a beginner?" shouted Max, his fiery temper coming back. Now even random people on the beach were staring at us, "Fine! I'll challenge you to a Pokemon battle! 1 on 1! Winner takes all,"

"I accept your challenge!" I shouted back. I had to set some things straight with my little brother. Ash stood up in an abrupt manner.

"I'll referee," he said, smirking, "Make it more official… I'd love to see what you can do Max,"

"It's a challenge," said Max and I, simultaneously. It was official. The two of us were battling for the first time, ever.

I knew for a fact that Max specialized in Psychic type Pokemon. It was easy for him, after all. That made my decision for a Pokemon a whole lot easier…

"Umbreon! I choose you!" I shouted, taking out one of my Pokeballs and throwing it. I hadn't intended on evolving my Eevee into Umbreon, but one night I gave some cake to eat and then it just evolved. Ash had just said that friendship at night made Eevee evolve in to Umbreon, and after that, I had just grown in to Umbreon, and I couldn't imagine myself with another evolution.

"Okay," said Max, "Then I'll use Erureido!" his Pokemon was already out, it moved into the battle arena… or more the beach, "You're the lady… you go first,"

"If you say so," I smirked, "Umbreon! Use Crunch!"

Umbreon lunged and bit Erureido someone near the leg. As hard as it tried however, the other Pokemon didn't seem to be feeling much pain at all. Max laughed harshly,

"You're forgetting May," he said smartly, "Erureido is a fighting type! Fighting beats dark!"

"What!" I shouted, now wishing that I had checked my Pokedex before starting the battle, and not assumed Erureido to simply be a male Gardevoir, "Well still! Your attacks won't affect me!"

"Correction," said Max, smirking, "My PSYCHIC attacks won't work on you… but who said that I'd use psychic attacks anyway?"

I knew it. Max had always been smarter than me… he was always the one that came up with my strategies. To win against him, you had to have well… luck. He was basically the best when it came to strategy. I analyzed Umbreon's moves… Crunch, Pursuit, Faint Attack and Thief. All Dark types. Should I go for Erureido's psychic attacks? Or not?

"Erureido! Use Miracle Eye!" said Max.

This wasn't good. I'd heard of Miracle Eye. It made dark types venerable to psychic attacks. There was no doubt that Max had trained well. I would have been better off with a ghost type.

"Umbreon!" I shouted, now a little desperate, "Use Pursuit!"

Umbreon did a sort of tackle on Erureido. It still looked as healthy as ever. I was struggling right now… I should have listened to Max years ago, and not taught my Pokemon moves of the same type.

"Erureido! Use Psychic!" said Max triumphantly. Thanks to Miracle Eye, it would work and sure enough, Umbreon was lifted into the air by a blue glow, just like the Wingull. A few seconds later, it had been pounded to the floor. For some reason though, it seemed to take a fair bit of damage for a dark type. Max really was good.

I wish had taught Umbreon moonlight, or brought along something to heal it. Now I was getting beaten to pieces by Max… something that I had inwardly never thought would happen.

"Oh, Umbreon," I said, panicking. I just couldn't lose… "Use thief," Hopefully Erureido had some sort of health item. Umbreon tackled, no luck however. Erureido dropped nothing.

"May," said Max, now looking close to triumphant laughter, "I wouldn't give Erureido a heal item! It knows recover, that's all I need,"

Oh no. This wasn't good… now it was Max's turn…

"Finish it off with Dynamic Punch!" he said, a sort of triumph in his voice. Umbreon was a dark type… Dynamic Punch was a fighting move. This wasn't good.

Erureido took one of it's blade like hands, and punched Umbreon… straight in the lower belly. My Pokemon was thrown in the air, and landed next to me. It had fainted. I had been beaten, badly.

"Umbreon is unable to battle – Max and Erureido win," said Ash. It was over.

"Umbreon, return," I sighed. I had lost to Max, big deal. Stepping forward I went and stood right in front of Max, who was complimenting his Pokemon.

"I'm sorry for doubting you…. You're a great trainer Max," I said, admitting it. Max really was good.

"What?" said Max, turning to me, "Oh… thanks I suppose," he smiled, "You've gotten better too…"

"It's great to see you again," I said, shaking his hand, "I've really missed you,"

"Yeah," said Max, nodding in agreement, "It's good to be together again,"

I know Umbreon can't learn Crunch. I just had to have a bunch of dark type attacks for purposes of the story.


	12. Promises

_I had lost. I just couldn't believe it… Max had beaten me. He had just crushed me… I was a terrible trainer. Or that's how a felt. I was sitting in my room of the beach house. The one I was sharing with Drew. Apparently, there had been an extra room in the house, only Casey and Ash thought that it was 'funny' to watch Drew and I share a room. We couldn't really shift rooms anyway, seeing as Max had taken up the last one. He was going to stay with us until Saturday, but he had said that he would leave directly after the contest. I had asked him if he wanted to stay longer, I preferred it when he was around – I now knew that I was terrible without him – yet, despite my need, he had said there was some sort of 'destiny' or 'fate' calling him and telling him that he had to leave on Saturday. I had told him to forget about it, but he simply said that in the end, it would be for the best._

_He had changed more than anyone I knew had ever done. He was no longer my easily frightened, upset or cute little brother. He was now a mystical sort of person, handsome and with an attitude. Unexplainable things had also changed, for example, his allergies had seemed to have left him. We spent almost and hour on the beach battling and discussing Max's psychic abilities. _

_Yet, the biggest change of all was the fact that we were no longer helping each other in the battle, sure, we may have had some fights, but now we were here, on separate sides of the contest… of the battle. He had caught up to me in battle ability, in fact he had even overtaken me. He was always more knowledgeable when it came to Pokemon. I had lost, to my own little brother, who I had thought would always be on my side._

"_Don't think too hard on it," said another voice, I looked up and saw Drew entering the room, "You fought really well… but why didn't you finish your dinner?" _

"_Oh," I muttered, shrugging, "I felt a bit queasy…" It was true. Maybe it was just one of those feelings you got when you lost a big battle, or were nervous about something, but I felt like throwing up. _

"_Maybe it's all that suntan," said Drew, he climbed onto his bed, "I knew it wasn't good for you," _

"_Drew… you don't know anything about girls," I said fairly. Drew laughed,_

"_I really love you May…" he said, looking into my face, smiling, "Promise me that nothing can ever come between us," _

"_Of course I w-" I retched. I needed to vomit. I didn't know why… seeing as the nerves had calmed down. _

"_Are you okay May?" said Drew, sitting up quickly. I clamped my hand to my mouth and shook my head. Darting out of bed, I ran into the bathroom, and vomited into the sink, I vomited out everything I had eaten for dinner, and lunch._

"_May," said Drew, rushing into the bathroom, "Are you okay?" _

"_Um… I think so," I muttered, turning on the tap and washing everything down, "I think I should have listened to Casey… fish and chips two days in a row isn't such a good idea," _

_Drew smiled, "I'm glad to see your fine… I hope it isn't anything too serious," He took his ungloved hand, and wet it in the running water. He wiped my mouth, and pulled me into an embrace, "I love you May," he muttered again. _

"_I love you too… I really do promise that I will never let anything come between us," _

Well, that was the last time I had vomited. On Tuesday. Now it was Friday. The day before the contest! We were in Casey's car, which was recklessly being driven by Ash, and we going… you guessed it, training. That's what we had been doing virtually all week, training. I was so sick of it… literally. I felt like vomiting again. I was sitting the back seat, along with Drew and Max. The backseat causes vomiting, everyone knew that.

"Ash!" said Casey, looking at her boyfriend, "Are you trying to get us killed?"

It was a fair question. Ash had taken a fair few driving lessons, he had been going for almost a year, but all the same, he was driving far too fast, even for someone with a license. We were in the middle of a big road, in the middle of rows of trees. Apparently there was a great forest near by where it was easy to train.

"Ash," I said, clamping my hand to my mouth, "Can we please slow down?"

"Yeah," said Max, who alone looked rather calm. He was looking out the window, although it seemed that he was deep in thought. Even though we weren't really fighting anymore, Max was now very distant with virtually everything. He always seemed to only be half-conscious of what was going on, "Slow down a bit, May's going to puke,"

He hadn't even looked at me for the entire trip, but now a statement like that wasn't really all that surprising. Max seemed to do that a lot. He was always stating things that normal people wouldn't really know. Yet, it was still annoying. Now I had to face Ash's apologies, Drew's fussing and the lecture that Casey was about to give Ash. I noticed that Max was smirking slightly as he looked out the window. Were we ever going to be on even footing ever again?

"Oh, I'm sorry May?" said Ash, looking back and ignoring Casey's angry looks, "Should I stop?"

"Nah," I muttered, "I think it's gone down now," This was pretty much true, but I glared at Max. Why on earth was he so annoying now? I thought we had made up after that battle.

"Well," said Casey, triumphantly, "Don't say I didn't warn you! Now slow down before I puke on you,"

"Again?" whispered Drew. He looked a bit concerned, "Are you sure there isn't something wrong with you?"

"Nah," I repeated, I was feeling a little better now, "I think last time it was the food and this time I'm just a little travel sick… I'm pretty sure that it's just a coincidence,"

"I'm not sure," said Drew, biting his lip. It was annoying when people seemed to have too much concern for you. It was hard to make them stop. I opened my mouth to try, but it was at that very moment when Casey chose to say,

"Ash! Stop the car…" she smiled, "I think we've reached a pretty good spot,"

Ash had still been going rather fast and so the car skidded a little as Ash parked. We were in the middle of a massive clearing, surrounded by dense trees and rocks. Ash, Casey and Drew all got out, and I made to follow.

"Stay here for a sec," said Max, who had actually bothered to look at me. I turned back and rolled my eyes.

"What?" I asked, looking at him repulsively, "Why on earth are you so annoying?"

"Keep your promises," said Max without any expression.

"Keep your pr- what? What on earth are you on about?" I stared back at him. I was rather annoyed and I had a slight headache from the car trip, in other words, I knew I was going to lose my temper quickly.

"I don't know," said Max, shrugging, "I'm just giving you some advice: Keep your promises,"

"UGGH!" I shouted, my voice rising. I was just annoyed with him, "You call that advice and you don't even tell me what you're talking about? Can you try to be a bit more STRAIGHTFORWARD?"

"I can't get any more straightforward than that… something has told me to tell you to keep your promises…"

"And what will happen if I don't?" I said, slightly mockingly. I didn't care about what Max had to say.

"The doom of a loved one… it will all come, in a close time," said Max, closing his eyes.

"WELL" I shouted, this wasn't making any sense, "I'm going to have to break my promise to mum, whether the psychopaths like it or not,"

"Which one?" said Max, smirking a little bit. This gave me the feeling that no one had told him anything, and he was just using his so-called "powers" to his advantage.

"The one about me looking after you and listening to you," I said, turning away from him and seizing the car door, opening it, "Because write now, I don't care about what you've got to say," I got out of the car, and slammed the door.

Ash, Casey and Drew had all sent out their Pokemon, who seemed to enjoy the habitat.

"Come on out guys," I said, throwing my Pokeballs into the air. Out came Delcatty, Umbreon and Vulpix. Some of the Pokemon I had achieved along the way, and the ones I was planning to use in the contests all around Johto. If the need came, I'd just use the PC to get my other Pokemon out of the various labs.

Max had left the car. He wasn't smirking anymore, but he didn't look angry at me either. He just looked rather mysterious, as usual. He too sent out his Pokemon, and I found that other than Erureido, he had Starmie, Xatu and Lunatone. All dual type psychics.

As for Casey, she had Meganium, Elekid and a Manectric. She had seemingly gotten stronger too!

Ash was still using his old Pokemon: Bulbasaur, Pikachu and Aipom. He had gotten stronger though, and whilst none of his Pokemon had evolved, they were all looking so close to doing so.

My concerns however, were on Drew. The only Pokemon he had sent out was Roselia. His other Pokemon seemed no where in sight… he had used them for the last couple of days, but today it was just Roselia. The others had all started battling, but Drew was sitting on rock, doing nothing in particular.

"Aren't you going to train?" I said, walking up to him and sitting down next to him, "This is a great spot to do so you know,"

"I will eventually," said Drew, "Once _they_ finish their battle," he said, indicating Ash, Casey and Max. They were having some sort of triple battle, where instead of battling one other person, you battled two… only no one was on a team with anyone. It was free for all.

"So… where are all of your other Pokemon? Are you planning on entering Roselia in the contest?" I said, getting a bit comfortable.

"Well," said Drew, looking down a little, "I thought I'd enter Roselia… and get a bit of training done with it… it's a really special Pokemon… I mean, all of my Pokemon are special, but Roselia was my mother's… and when I was a kid, I'd play with it when my parents were you know… away,"

"Mhmm," I murmured, nodding. I understood. Of course it would be very important to him if it was his mother's, "If you want, I'll train with you while we're waiting,"

"Really?" said Drew, looking up, "Okay… we haven't battled in a while, it'll be fun,"

Drew was obviously going to use Roselia. At first, my choice of Pokemon jumped to Vulpix, due to it's type advantage, but then again, type never really proved anything, especially after what has happened with Max the other day. Then again, I thought that if I couldn't win with a type advantage, then I probably couldn't win at all. I decided to use Vulpix.

"Okay Vulpix, you're up," I shouted back at my Pokemon, who responded immediately. It ran forward, to oppose Drew's Roselia.

"You go first, you're the lady," said Drew, echoing Max.

"Okay… I don't know why everyone insists on this though," I muttered, "Vulpix! Flamethrower!"

"Roselia… use Razor Leaf!" said Drew. At first I thought that he was losing it, but I was proved wrong when the leaves somehow managed to collide with the fire, and seemingly stop it.

"_He's gotten stronger…"_

Ash was right. Drew had gotten stronger, just like Max. Competition was so tough these days, compared to the past.

"Woah, that's some Razor Leaf!" said Casey. She, Ash and Max had stopped their battle and were watching us with awe.

"Yes… it is… isn't it," said someone else. It was a women's voice, and it definitely didn't sound like Casey. It sounded more mystical and dreamy. Almost instantly, I looked at Max, chances were that he could change his voice on top of everything else. He shook his head before I managed to say anything though.

"It wasn't me," he said simply, "It was her," he added, pointing to behind Drew. There stood a woman.

She was the complete opposite to mystical. She had long blonde hair which she had tied up loosely. She wore a loose, wet and dirty polo shirt and torn jeans. It looked like she had been traveling for days… yet there was a look of a maniac on her face. Beside her was the Pokemon I knew to be Victreebell.

"It's her!" said Casey, looking alarmed, "Leila Jones!" For the first time since I had met Casey, she looked slightly frightened. Her Pokemon seemed to be as well.

"That's correct," said the woman, raising a hand with nails painted black, "Now Victreebell – use Vine Whip,"

It wasn't exactly vine whip though. The vines didn't come from the Pokemon, they seemed to spring out of the ground, and before I knew it… my feet had become held tightly in place. I looked up… the same thing held true for everyone and all of their Pokemon. Everyone that is, except Drew and Roselia. Drew was looking unhurt, and Roselia was being held in Victreebell's vines. Casey had been right… Leila Jones kidnapped Pokemon, and no doubt about it – she was very good at it. Why hadn't she tied Drew up though? He was the trainer of the panicking Pokemon.

"Give him back his Pokemon!" I shouted stupidly. I knew it wasn't going to work. Sure enough, Leila did nothing except nod to her Victreebell. Seconds later, another vine had sprung over my mouth, stopping me from speaking. Ash, Max and Casey were facing the same thing… thanks to my big mouth.

"Leave us alone! You're just provoking Drew!" shouted Max. Wait… Max couldn't speak… he had vines on his mouth. I looked up… and then I remembered. Maybe his telepathy could be useful for once. What was going on? Was Leila going to hurt Drew?

"Oh," said Leila, looking up from Drew's Roselia, "I should have sensed the psychic vibes coming from someone other than myself…"

So Leila, like Max was a psychic. This could only make everything worse. I hoped and prayed that Drew wouldn't physically try to get his Pokemon back. He had no others though… I just hoped he would stand still. I didn't want him to get hurt, like what had happened to others.

"Well… I think I'll just make off with this Pokemon," said Leila… she smirked.

"No!" shouted Drew, he looked rather close to tears. He had never looked like this when Team Rocket had tried to steal his Pokemon though…

"Yes… I could tell that you were going to say that," said Leila, "My powers tell me that you want this Pokemon because it's your mothers… is her little baby missing his parents now? To the point that he needs their Pokemon to survive? Maybe I should give it back… otherwise he's going to cry…"

It was very unfair for Leila to tease Drew about his parents, it wasn't his fault that they had died. I saw a tear fall from his face to the ground. I once again felt sorry for him, but I hoped that he would just stay put…

"Stop abusing your power!" shouted Max. Had the situation not been so serious, I would have said something with the word "hypocrite" in my sentence, but this was not the time for it.

"Just telepathically shut up," said Leila, leering at Max, "Well… I'm going to get out of here with the Pokemon that this baby calls his mother,"

"NO!" shouted Drew. He ran forward… and attempted to fight her Victreebell with his bare hands, which were starting to bleed due to the fangs. Tears were streaming down his face as he tried. His Roselia had been to sleep by a sleepowder which Leila had used earlier. Casey was looking terrified, Ash was looking worried and Max was shouting "Stop Drew! She'll hurt you!"

It was too late though… with a flash of silver, Leila turned to Drew, who didn't seem to notice her. Held in her hand was a knife, which already had blood on it… I knew what was going to happen if I didn't act quick.


	13. Tragedy Strikes!

"Erureido!" shouted Max desperately, "Cut us out of these binds!"

It was too late. Leila seemed to plunge her knife into Drew's unknowing body. She got him in his back… he gave a scream, just as I gave a silent one. Max's Erureido was trying to cut our binds, but they were rather tough.

Leila withdrew her knife, and Drew fell to the ground, gasping in pain. His blood was spluttering everyone. I couldn't bear to watch as he suffered… this didn't make any sense. One minute were all okay, and next second Drew was on the ground… there just wasn't enough detail in it for it to be real.

"Stop," Drew panted, he was on the ground and he was clutching his chest in pain. I didn't know what to do… there wasn't anything I could do anyway. Leila seemed to ignore the terrible, terrible weakness in his voice. She bent down and seized his hair, lifting him up from the pool of blood. She once again launched her knife into his body… this time his front. She dropped him and he lay in a heap on the floor, dying. Tears were pouring down my eyes now.

"You will pay!" shouted Max. I looked around… he had been freed from his bindings. Erureido was now trying to help Ash and Casey, both of whom were bound to the same tree.

"Ugh… Psycho boy's gotten himself free… let's scram," said Leila, smirking again, "Our work here is done," she indicated Drew's body, "Victreebell return!"

As soon as her Pokemon disappeared in a flash of red light, the vines seemed to evaporate around me and my Pokemon. Leila turned on her heal and ran… Max chasing after her.

"Max!" I shouted after him, I couldn't manage much through my tears, "Don't! I don't want you to end up like Drew! We've got to help him!"

I ran to Drew's side. He was still conscious, but he was panting harshly. He was dying. I couldn't let him die though… I had to help him.

"Drew!" I said, tears falling onto his body as I crouched over him. I couldn't believe what had just happened, "I'm going to carry you to the car and drive you to the hospital!" I knew there was no hope. How could I manage? Drew looked like he was going to die any second now. I didn't even know how to drive.

"L…leave me," panted Drew… his voice was so quiet… he sounded so hopeless, "I'm going to be with my parents… in a better place,"

"No… I don't think I'll make it," said Drew. He closed his eyes and stopped panting… my stomach went cold… I couldn't bear to see him like this. Weak, hopeless, dying… I couldn't tell if he was alive or d-

"He's not dead yet..." said Max, who had been looking over my shoulder, "But he isn't going to last much longer… are you going to leave him?"

I looked around. Casey was in tears, and Ash's face was pale and shocked. None of them however, had any emotion compared to mine. For the first time in my life, I wanted to die. I just wanted this all to be over with. Drew didn't deserve to die, his parents didn't either. He was just so unfortunate.

"_Keep your promises…"_

I had made a promise. I had promised that nothing would come between me and Drew, and I wasn't going to let Leila Jones come between us.

"Casey, can you drive us to the hospital? Go overspeed! Get us there as quickly as possible!"

"Wha?" said Casey, looking up. She had been crying in Ash's shoulders.

"You mean… we can still help the poor thing?" said Ash, his face still pale.

"Yes! I'm not giving up," I shouted, reaching down and trying to lift Drew's body from the ground. No use, he was too heavy. Another stream of tears leaked down my face… then I saw another pair of hands reaching down. I looked up and saw Max, attempting to help me carry Drew to the car.

"Max…" I said, looking into his eyes. Here he was, offering to help me.

"I'm going to help you save him, don't worry," he muttered, lifting up Drew's body with his own hands. I joint in my own effort, and suddenly, it all became a lot lighter.

Casey and Ash were both wearing determined looks on their faces. Casey wrenched open the drivers seat and got in to the car, and Ash opened to the back door for Max and I. We sat down, and I rested Drew's head on my lap. He still had a pulse, but his blood was leaking everywhere.

Suddenly, I heard the sound of accelerators. Casey had started the car, and while she was crying, she was driving at a fast speed. I knew that I couldn't save Drew on my own… I needed everyone to help me. I just had to have him live.

"Don't worry about the blood on my car," said Casey, her voice shaky. We were back on the main road… "His safety is what matters,"

"Shouldn't we have called the ambulance?" said Ash, he also sounded panicky. The trees were disappearing from view… we were reaching the metropolis…

"No… they might not have been able to find us… we were in a remote area," We had turned on to another street… we were back in the city… the roads seemed to go on, yet the road just kept on winding. How far was the hospital.

We had been driving for about ten minutes when we saw a sign, indicating that Olivine Hospital was on the next road. Perhaps we could make it… maybe we could save Drew.

Casey turned sharply, and with relief I saw a building in front of us. A tall and sparkly building.

"Park in emergency!" I called desperately.

"Isn't that just for ambulances?" said Casey, hesitantly.

"Who cares!" said Ash, "Drew's dying in the back seat,"

Casey gave a nod, and steered the car into the emergency section. She hadn't even parked when Max threw open the door, and jumped out of the car.

"Stay here! I'll get someone to come out!" he shouted. I was a little perplexed as I watched Max run out of the car, across the road and into the emergency foyer.

"Hang in there Drew," I muttered, wiping some blood off his cheek. Victreebell had caused a great scar their. Drew's clothes were soaked in blood, but I could still feel a pulse… only it felt weak. Hopefully Max would hurry up.

"Over here!" I heard Max's voice say. I looked up, Max was running towards the car, some hospital staff behind him, they were wheeling a stretcher. Max opened the door, and the hospital staff attempted to take Drew's body from me… but I just couldn't let go.

"Just let them take him… you're going to have to, if you want to save him," said Max gently. I nodded, but it was still hard… at long last, I let go… and they lifted Drew slowly and moved him to the stretcher.

"Quick!" said one of the doctors, "Take him to the emergency ward, and turn on life support!" slowly, the doctors and nurses pushed Drew in through the building, and soon the stretcher was out of sight. All of them had gone except for one nurse.

"That boy looked terrible," she said, watching after the doctors, "Now I need all of you to come with me… we need to file a medical report for the injury.

I was very shaky as I got out of the car. Casey had stopped crying, but like Ash, she was very pale and like me, both of them were shaking.

"Poor Drew," I muttered, "He's just so unfortunate… first his parents die and then he ends up like this,". My tears overwhelmed me, and I couldn't talk much more. We silently entered the building, and the nurse sat us down in some comfy chairs.

"Now, can you tell me what happened to that poor boy?" the nurse said gently.

"He was st-st-stabbed by…" I couldn't say the name.

"Leila Jones," supplied Max, he too looked rather depressed, although not as upset as the rest of us.

"Oh my," said the nurse, jumping slightly in her seat, "Are you serious? How old was boy?"

"Yes. We're certain it was Leila Jones…"

The discussion seemed to go on forever. I could tell that Drew was battling his injuries to stay alive, but how long could he survive? Behind the doors to the operating theatre, was he getting better? Or getting worse? What were they doing in there?

He was only fifteen years old, and he had been stabbed twice. Once in the chest and once in the back. Victreebell had also given him less serious but still painful injuries. Was this too much for him? Could he survive?

So after a lot of talking, the nurse said that she'd go and check on what was happening. We sat in silence, looking at the floor. I felt sick, as though I had no stomach. We had been sitting in silence for two hours, when Max finally said something.

"I'm going to go after her…" he muttered, "I know that I've got to go after Leila Jones,"

"What!" I shouted, looking up. There was still crying present in my voice, "You can't go after her! You could end up like Drew… Max, I care about you! Don't go after that mad woman… you just can't,"

"Listen May," said Max, "Remember how I told you that people with psychic abilities as powerful as mine were very rare… well, at first I thought that I'd never meet someone else like me, but I'm afraid that I just did,"

"What?" whispered Ash, who had been listening in along with Casey, "You mean Leila Jones,"

"Mhmm," said Max, "And well… she's going to be hard to stop… I mean, at first I thought it was a wonder that no one had caught her, but now it's pretty obvious why… I feel that I should go and get her,"

"But you have no idea where she is!" said Casey, "Didn't you hear that nurse? Leila can travel fast. Just last week she was sighted in Blackthorn city and now she's here… She's probably somewhere else now!"

"Actually, I do know where she is," said Max, "Whenever one Psychic meets another one, they trade vibes… and then one can easily detect the presence of another. Leila probably never thought that she'd meet me, or another psychic like herself. Vibes are only exchanged when the powers are identical…"

Much of what Max was saying didn't make sense, but I got the drift. Max was going to leave to go and face Leila Jones, and try and take her down. Had it been four years ago, I could have told him to, and he would listen to me. Yet now, he was far more independent, tough and stubborn. What if he went off and died? Would I feel the same way as Drew, who suffered constantly because he had no family left? Sure, me and Max had our ups and downs, but deep inside, I loved him as my brother, and I appreciated him.

"Max," I muttered, looking down, "Please don't leave… I don't want anything to happen to you! What if Drew… d- d- passes on… I need you to be here with me if something like that happens,"

"May," said Max, moving and putting his arm around me, "I know Drew was your boyfriend and-"

"WHAT!" shouted Casey, a little too loudly for the hospital, "You two were going out?"

"Mhmm," I murmured sadly. Casey didn't bother tease us though.

"Oh…" she muttered, looking down at her own feet, "I never knew… that's just going to make everything a lot harder for you isn't it,"

I couldn't speak, so I nodded. The tears were flowing once more down my face… Max pulled me into a hug.

"May, please don't cry," he whispered, "I'll be here for you, no matter where you are. Just think of me and think of whatever you want to tell me… I'll get the message, I promise,"

I nodded. I understood, but I just didn't want him to leave so soon. We didn't even know what the chances of Drew's survival was.

"I'm not leaving… just yet," said Max, moving slightly further away from me, "I plan on staying for a while… at least a few days. Then I'll leave, but I've made up my mind – I don't know when, but at some point, I will leave,"

I nodded again. He had grown up so much, he was no longer the boy who teased me and picked on me every now and then, only to be quiet when I shouted at him. I couldn't convince him not to go, and I had to agree that the world would be a better place without Leila Jones.

At that moment, the door to the ward opened, and the same nurse who had spoken to us walked out. She looked slightly relieved about something, and for a second, my heart lifted.

"Is Drew alright?" I asked, praying with all my heart that he was.

"I'd just like to congratulate," said the nurse, "Had you gone and even waited for the ambulance or anything, your friend would have died. You got him here just on time, and he was put on life support… thanks to that, your friend's life has been spared," she smiled.

Relief just came over me. Drew was alive, "How is he? Can we see him?" I asked. I almost felt like laughing.

"Yes," said the nurse, beckoning towards the door, "But you must be quiet. Your friend is conscious again, but he's extremely weak. It's going to be a while before he can even move very much again… see, we had to do an operation and fix everything up… but it was all for the best. See, Leila has just gotten even more terrible… she's never bothered to hurt anyone younger than twenty years of age before this… but we never thought that she'd strike a fifteen year old boy…" we had arrived at what seemed like an intensive care ward. There was only one bed, lying in which was Drew.

He did look terrible, but not as bad as he had looked hours ago. He was rather pale, and his usually cutely scruffy hair lay rather ruffled, and stained in his own blood. There were many drips and monitors connected to his body.

"Would you like to see the wounds?" said the nurse, moving over to Drew's side. I nodded. I wanted to see how severe things were…

As the nurse lifted the quilt off Drew's body, I found that there weren't many wounds to see. His entire chest had been wrapped in bandages, sort of like a mummy. The bandages were stained slightly with blood. I knew that deep inside, it would be a long road to recovery, but I was glad that we were together again.


	14. Possibility

Okay, new chapter. I'm going to try and write this in three hours, so that I have time to post another chappie tomorrow. Expect a few grammar errors today .

Now this is the start of part 2. Part two is sort of like a sequel to the previous part, but now the story doesn't focus on them getting together – it focuses on Drew's recovery and a something else which you will find out in this chapter.

Chapter 13: Possibility

What exactly had happened yesterday? It still didn't make any sense to me. It was dawn at last, yet this dawn had just taken the longest of times to come. I couldn't sleep all night, despite all of my exhaustion. Why was this? Because I had been so worried about Drew. He was still lying in the hospital, and he hadn't yet woken up. We were going to see him again today, and the day after and the day after that. He was going to be in hospital for a minimum of three weeks, and for each and every one of the days contained in those weeks, I was going to keep my promise, and not let anything come between us.

Max had been right. Had I not kept my promise, and had I just let Drew die, simply because it was Drew's will, then he would just be gone… but he was still there, for which I was glad. Just a week ago, at Ash's party, I had wished that Drew would just die. I had now learnt my lesson: Be careful what you wish for.

I was lying in bed, but I didn't want to get up. My stomach was feeling very squeamish again. Third time this week. I didn't want to sit up, because I felt like puking again. I rolled over in bed, and that was when the door opened and Max walked into my room, fully dressed and looking ready to go out.

"Oh," he said, smiling, "You're awake! I thought I heard a noise coming from this room,"

I nodded. The surprise gained from his entry had made my vomit come up into my throat. Max was looking at me suspiciously, and I could tell that he was trying to sense what was wrong. It was harder if you didn't make eye-contact though.

This was when I retched again. I put my hand to my mouth, but it was a bit too late. I was going to vomit on to my bed sheets… or was I?

At that moment, Max turned towards the door of my en suite bathroom, and at very fast speed, a dish seemed to fly out of it and land right under my mouth. I knew it was Max's doing, as thankful none the less, I removed my hand and vomited into the dish. At least it didn't get over the bed sheets – we were going to stay here until Drew got discharged.

"Thanks for that," I said to Max, standing up and moving towards the bathroom to clean out the dish, "That was a life saver,"

Max, who had followed me into the bathroom, watched me wash the dish for a moment before speaking.

"This isn't a coincidence May," he said simply, "The vomiting…"

"What?" I asked, turning slightly, "Can you- I mean do your powers tell you what's wrong with me?"

"No," said Max. He wasn't looking at me, but instead at the running water, "Anyone can tell that this isn't a coincidence… it isn't normal,"

Max had taken to wearing a lot of black these days. He was once again wearing the large shirt, over dark jeans. His sun glasses were once again perched on his forehead.

"What do you think it is then?" I said, turning of the water. Max seemed to snap out of some sort of trance, because at that moment, he shook his head and looked at me.

"Oh… don't worry," he said, "Wash up and come down so we can eat breakfast,"

With that he left. He was acting a bit strange, stranger than usual. Did he suspect something? I sighed. What sort of illness could I have? I brushed my teeth and didn't bother to get changed. When I arrived in the hall however, I could hear Ash, Casey and Max's voices coming from the dining area.

"It could be Drew," I heard Casey's voice say conversationally,

"Yeah," I heard Ash say, "He's probably the only possibility… only May and Drew are pretty civilized, well… Drew is anyway. I'm sure they wouldn't do something like that when they were only a little way into it,"

"It's the most likely cause for it… that's for sure," said Casey, "Unless it was the fish and chips,"

"Don't be stupid," I heard Max reply.

"Yeah," I heard Ash say, "Don't blame the fish and chips. It's probably not, seeing as it only started after…"

They were obviously talking about me. Maybe they thought I was travel sick? Or sick of Drew or something? What on earth was going on?

"May," I heard Max say loudly. I jumped, "I know you're eavesdropping on us… now can you come in here for a second, we need to talk to you,"

A little nervous, I entered the dining room. As soon as I walked in, I was intimidated by the three of them. Casey was leaning against the wall, one of her arms on her hip… she was wearing a black dress which looked like it was made of leather. Ash on the other hand, was wearing a black tracksuit with a devil patterned on the front, he was sitting at the table, his arms folded and he had the chair pushed back slightly, so that only two of the legs touched the floor. Max was standing up too, leaning on the table with one of his hands. His costume was as intimidating as ever. All three of them were looking at me, with a look that reminded me of a leer.

It was as though they were ganging up on me about something. All of them were taller than me, and fully dressed in what looked like gangster clothes. Then there was me, in my pink nightdress with messy hair which I had not yet combed.

"Well May," said Max. He gave a little smirk, "We think we've found the cause of your vomiting,"

"What?" I asked. I had half predicted it would be something like this, but I still didn't get their poses and funny attitudes.

"Well, we think so anyway," said Casey, her expression softening as she moved away from the wall and towards me, "We've got to ask you something before we can make sure,"

"And what's that?" I asked, a little timidly.

"Well," said Ash, "It's a bit of an awkward question, but after you and Drew got together… did you ever um… did you… you know… e-"

This was typical Ash. He never liked to use exact words, Casey gave him a stared at him,

"What Ash is trying to ask," she said, looking back at me, "Is whether you and Drew ever got into bed together?"

"Yeah," said Ash, "That,"

"What you mean… sleep in the same bed?" I asked, not knowing where this was coming to.

"Of for god's sake," said Max, "Did you two ever have sex?"

"Oh… that," I asked, my voice failing. What on earth were they on about? Did they think that I had gotten some sexually transmitted disease or something, "Well… um yes… we did on Monday,"

All three of them exchanged glances. They had obviously been discussing this since before I had even woken up.

"That was the day you got together… right?" asked Casey.

"Well," I muttered. They'd probably think that I had no control over myself if I told them, so I sighed before I spoke, "Um, yeah… it was,"

The three of them once again exchanged glances. This time however, they looked slightly horrified.

"That settles it," said Ash, clapping his hands together,

"Wait!" said Casey, looking at him seriously, "We can't prove anything until we've done a proper test,"

"Exactly," said Max, "So we're going to buy a proper test from the chemist when we go and visit Drew today,"

"What are you guys on about?" I asked, rather confused. All three of them seemed to answer at once, it was like all of them were psychics…

"May," the said simultaneously, "We think you're pregnant,"

What? No way… it just couldn't be. I had only had one encounter with Drew, and didn't you need to have lots to get pregnant. I couldn't believe it, I wasn't even sixteen yet. It just couldn't be true.

"It can't be possible! I'm too young… I'm only sixteen," I shouted, panic in my voice. I couldn't believe it… I wouldn't believe it.

"Actually May," said Ash, "You aren't too young… Max told me that you've had that thing… you know… the one… the monthly… you know-"

"Period?" supplied Casey, "Seriously Ash,"

"Nice going," I snapped at Max. Still, it just wasn't right… just a week ago, Max turned up and told us that he was gifted with psychic powers, and then yesterday Drew was stabbed and admitted to hospital, and now this?!?! Sure, the world was full of surprises, but the surprises never came this quickly. My life had been pretty normal, and then the last week was just so different. It didn't make sense.

"No… I can't be pregnant! No… it's just not possible," I retorted, a tear of stress leaked down my face. Why couldn't I think of anything to defend myself?

"Don't worry yet," said Casey sympathetically, "We still have to do a pregnancy test… these boys could just be jumping to conclusions. Trust me, they know nothing about girls," she smirked at Ash again.

I gave a weak smile. It was nice that they all cared for me, but I just couldn't believe how far-fetched their theory was! I just couldn't believe it.

"Guys… if Drew's awake, can we please not tell him about our suspicions," I asked, "Not until it's confirmed anyway… I don't want to add any weight to his shoulders,"

All of them nodded. At least they understood.

"We're going to buy a pregnancy test from the chemist and bring it home," said Max, ignoring Casey's last remark, "I don't fancy having it done by those hospital staff… they all kept on staring at me,"

"Well," said Casey, who seemed to find this statement completely normal, "What did you do when you first saw them?"

"If I hadn't done what I did, Drew might not have survived," retorted Max, sitting back down.

"And precisely what did you do?" said Casey, smirking.

"They took forever to get the stretcher out for some reason… so I decided to levitate it and help them,"

"Well… I don't see why you're complaining then," she replied, shrugging, "You know what they say about first impression…"

"Shut up," said Max.

I tried to laugh, but I couldn't quite manage it. It wasn't that I was feeling depressed or anything… it was just something which I couldn't believe, and that was possibility. Was it possible that there really was a little baby growing inside me? There sure were a lot of things that I didn't know.


	15. Questions & Answers

Chapter 14 – Questions & Answers

"May," said Casey, walking out of the bathroom with Ash and Max, "We finally have an answer,"

It was eleven o'clock in the morning. We had just done the pregnancy test. When we had arrived at the hospital, it wasn't visiting hours, so we just bought the test and left. We were planning to go and visit Drew later though. I took a deep breath,

"Well…" I muttered, looking at the three of them, "What happened?"

The three of them exchanged uncertain glances, "May, there's no doubt about it… you're pregnant,"

"No way," I muttered, "I just don't believe it…"

I still couldn't accept it. The other three looked really uncertain.

"May… do you want to go in and see the test results?" asked Max. I nodded.

He led me inside, and I had a look at the proof of my pregnancy. This just proved the phrase "Seeing is believing," false. I still couldn't believe it… it just couldn't be true.

"May," said Ash slowly, as though he didn't know what to say.

"It just can't be true…" I said, a tear leaking down my face, "Not after everything that's happened,"

"Now don't cry May…" said Max quickly. He couldn't tell me not to cry… not after everything that had happened

I just pushed them all out of the way, and ran upstairs. I heard their calls of "Wait" and "Hang on" but I did not listen. As I ran into my room and collapsed on the bed, the truth began to sink in. Maybe they were right, and I just didn't want to believe, but maybe I had to.

I continued to cry silently as the others caught up with me. I knew they were going to do that. Follow me.

"May," said Ash, as they all sat on my bed, "None of us are angry at you, don't worry, we'll be there for you, the whole way through,"

"Yeah," said Casey, rubbing me on the back.

"And if you don't want to go through with, we'll fully support you through an abortion,"

I continued to cry slowly, but I shook my head.

"I'm not going to get an abortion… even if I can't cope with," I said, still not lifting up my head.

"Why is that?" asked Casey,

"Because of Drew," I said, a lot more tears pouring down my face, "Since his parents died, he's always wanted to have a family… and I don't want to make him suffer even more by killing his child,"

"You don't have to tell him you know," whispered Max,

"I'll still feel guilty about it," I replied sadly, "He's suffered so much since his parents died, and now he's in hospital… killing his baby is just the worst thing I can do to him,"

"I understand," said Max, "Either way, we're not mad at you… and we'll be there for you, okay,"

I sat up slowly and smiled weakly at all of them. They were all showing so much concern for me, and I appreciated it. Maybe I could get through this, with all of their help.

"Thanks guys," I said, smiling at them all, "Let's go visit Drew… I think I'm ready to tell him the news, that's if he's woken up,"

The three of them exchanged glances again, but this time they were smiling and looking close to laughter.

"Yes," they all said together, "Let's,"

Fifteen minutes later, we were in the car once again, heading for Olivine hospital.

"What's up with all this traffic?" asked Ash, looking at Casey. He had a point. Olivine city didn't usually have a lot of traffic, as it wasn't a big metropolis, unlike Goldenrod City. Today however, the traffic seemed worse than Goldenrod.

"It's the contest," said Casey, "People are coming from all over to enter! You two are entering later today… right?" she added to me and Max.

I had totally forgotten all about the contest. What with, Drew's injury and my pregnancy.

"Um," I said, trying not to sound stupid, "I completely forgot about it… I don't think I'll enter, seeing as Drew can't,"

"May," said Max, turning and facing me, "I reckon Drew will want you to enter,"

"What? No… I can't," I said, "What if I end up winning a ribbon that could have been Drew's?"

"Don't feel guilty," said Max, "I can tell that you're feeling that it was partly your fault that Drew got injured… well, it's not. If it's anyone's fault, it's mine,"

"What?" I said, a little shocked, "How could it be your fault?"

"You were bound to the spot. All of you, and none of you could do anything to get yourselves out… but I could… I should have done something about it, but instead I just stood there and did nothing," he said with a sigh, "That's why I feel guilty and that's why I want to go and get Leila Jones,"

"But are you entering the contest?" I asked. I couldn't believe that he was taking the blame upon his own self. He had all the right to be surprised and not do anything, Leila would probably have hurt him too if he tried.

"No," said Max, "I think you were right… I'm not going to enter… maybe I should stick with my Hoenn ribbons,"

"I'm not entering unless you enter!" I said, noticing the stubborn quality in my voice, "It's not your fault! Had you bothered to attack Leila, she surely would have hurt you too! I would be distraught if I lost you too… Max, I really do care for you!"

"Really?" said Max, looking down, "You still get worried when I put myself in danger? Just like you used to…"

"Yes," I said, nodding, "Whilst I'm no longer responsible for you… you're still my little brother, and I still care for you,"

"Oh," said Max, "I don't know what to say," He gave me a smile which I returned.

"We're here," said Casey, driving into a parking spot. I looked up, sure enough, we had arrived at the hospital. Me and Max had one last look at each other, and left the car. All siblings had fights, everyone knew that, but in the end, they always made up, everyone knew that too.

We knew the number of Drew's room, and the way there. For the first time, we didn't get lost on the way. When we arrived, we were greeted by a slight surprise: Drew was awake. His eyes weren't fully opened, and he was still wearing a breathing mask. The bed was set at a slight incline, so he looked like he was sitting up slightly. As soon as I saw him, I just ran up to the bed… I wanted to kiss him, but then there was the breathing mask.

"May," he said quietly. He was still sounding very weak and exhausted, but at least there was happiness in his voice, "Is that you?"

"Yes!" I said, happiness flooding my voice. I took one of his hands, the one that was resting on the bed sheets. Even that was slightly bandaged, "It's me… I'm so glad to see you!"

"You saved me…" Drew muttered, looking in to my face, "I thought you were going to let me die…"

"I couldn't do that," I whispered, "I couldn't bear to live without you,"

"Thank you," said Drew. He sighed. This was when my mind jumped back to my pregnancy. I still had to tell Drew about it…

"I have something to tell you Drew," I said, looking away. I didn't know how to say it. I decided to make it as straightforward as possible, "I'm pregnant,"

"Really," said Drew. He looked a bit shocked. I nodded. Suddenly, a smile came to Drew's face… a smile so large and meaningful, it nearly made me cry. It was a relief to see him smiling.

"May… I'm so proud of you," he said, "You don't know how much this means to me… I've always wanted children,"

At that point, his face seemed to sink, "I just wish that I could help you through it… but I'm stuck here for the next month or whatever…"

"Don't worry about that," I said, smiling back at him, "I'll be fine… Ash, Casey and Max here are going to help me in your stead… until you get discharged,"

"Thanks guys," said Drew, looking around at all of us. The clock on the end table struck noon, "Oh… you better get going soon, the contest starts at two," he added.

"I'm not entering," I said. Drew seemed to jump, despite his weak physical state,

"What do you mean you're not entering?" he asked, horrified, "If it's because of me, then don't cancel your enter! Same goes for you Max. I want you both to enter… and I swear that I'll watch you on TV,"

"What," I said, a little surprised about his determination to have me enter the contest, "But I feel bad! You can't enter… what if I come back with a ribbon that should have been yours,"

"I'll be proud of you if you come back with a ribbon… now please, enter the contest. As you're pregnant, you might not be able to enter many more after this for a while, so I don't want you to pass up the chance, okay,"

"Okay," I nodded to Drew. It seemed pretty important to him.

"Aren't you angry at me?" said Max, who had been listening, "For not doing anything when you were getting hurt by that woman… I could have done something,"

"Why would I be angry with you?" said Drew, "It's thanks to you that Leila fled… I think I should be thanking you! I want you to enter the contest too… I'll be rooting for the both of you,"

"What? Really!" said Max, "I suppose I'll have to enter then," he looked around at me, "Bring it on sister,"

"Whilst I do care for you, don't take it as an indication that I'll go easy on you," I said back to Max, smirking.

"That's what I'm talking about," said Drew, smiling from me to Max, "I'll see you guys on TV real soon,"

That was when we left the hospital. Ash and Casey decided to stay with Drew a little longer, and then make their way straight to the contest hall. Max and I however, had to go home and collect our Pokeballs. The traffic was terrible, so we decided to walk.

"Ugh," said Max, scratching his face as we walked onto the beach road, "Stupid allergies… that's what I don't like about this place,"

"How come you weren't all itchy the other day then?" I asked,

"I have no idea," said Max, as we came to the road with our beach house on it, "Nothing really is certain,"

As we came to our house, we saw a lady standing by the door. She seemed to be ringing the doorbell and looked slightly flustered about something, as though she had been trying to get someone to answer the door.

"Don't tell me…" Max began, looking at her. He then turned to look at me, and I knew why… the lady trying to ring the doorbell was none other than our mother.


	16. Mum's Arrival

I think this is the only baseball shipping fic on the site… I like to write about it though… I love the way there are similarities in the personalities… anyway :P.

---

What on earth was mum doing here? I seized Max by the shirt, and dragged him to the side of the house. Mum didn't notice us…

"What on earth is she doing here?" I asked Max. He shrugged,

"I rang her up yesterday morning, and I told her that we were planning to enter the contest, and I told her to tune in on TV… but I didn't expect her to come all the way here,"

"How the hell did she find out the address?" I asked, my voice slightly fierce but quiet all the same, "I'm pretty sure she's not psychic,"

"She asked me what the address was, and I told her… I didn't expect her to come barging along here,"

"You rang her up before Drew got hurt… right?" I asked, biting my lip.

"Mhmm," said Max, "She obviously doesn't know about it yet…"

"You haven't told her about your powers yet either, correct?" I asked. There were so many things we had to reveal to her…

"No," said Max, "I haven't… this is going to be harder than I thought,"

"Max! She doesn't know that I'm pregnant… and I just can't tell her… you know her,"

"Yes," said Max, he sighed, "I do know her… she's probably going to end up sending the both of us to therapy and saying that we're losing our minds. If we tell her now, there's no way we're going to make it to the contest on time,"

"Well, let's tell her after the contest then," I suggested. I didn't want to be late for the contest, Drew was waiting to see me.

"Okay," said Max, "Let's just go and say hi before she gives us a lecture about respect,"

We walked around the building until we came to the front of the house. I sighed. For me, it had been only three weeks since I had seen mum, but as for Max, it had almost been five years. She was probably going to have a fit when she saw how much he had grown up.

"Mum!" said Max, looking at our mother. Neither of us had reached her height yet, she was pretty tall. We were getting there though.

Mum turned and looked at us for five whole seconds, only then did she run forward and throw herself onto both of us.

"May! Max! I haven't seen you both together for ages…" she said, pulling us into a tight hug. "Especially you," she added to Max, "I couldn't recognize you at first… you've grown so much. It feels like only yesterday I had you in my arms after you were born and now you're fourteen years old…"

I hated it when mums went on with this "Only yesterday" rubbish. All mums did it, and it was annoying. Mum let go of me, but she continued to hug Max, even tighter. I didn't really feel jealous though, four years was a long time for any mum to be separated with their children, let alone our mum.

When mum finally let go of Max, she surveyed him up and down. At first I thought she wouldn't approve of the slight "bad boy" touch to his clothes.

"You look so much like your father Max," she said, "He was a bit of a punk when he was your age,"

Max ignored her comment. "Why didn't you tell us you were coming?" he asked.

"I wanted it to be a surprise!" said mum happily. I checked my watch. It was half past twelve, we had one hour to get to the contest hall.

"I figured," said Max, he sounded bored, "Well, you got here just on time for the contest… we've got to get ready, so you can just sit down,"

Mum scoffed. Max opened the door,

"Oh, and I know what you're thinking mum," he added, "You want me to get more organized quicker next time,"

"How did you know that?" asked Mum, stopping in her tracks.

"Oops," said Max. He had blown it… now he had to explain.

"Well?" said Mum demandingly. I took this as a cue to sneak upstairs and get ready. I didn't want to hear Max explain his powers to mum.

I decided to use Umbreon in the first round of the contest, and then Vulpix in the second one. Umbreon really was stunning when it came to appeals, and Vulpix was cute yet tough. They seemed perfect for this contest.

When I came back downstairs fifteen minutes later, the topic was still on Max's abilities.

"What do you mean that gives you a good enough reason to go after Leila Jones?" Mum was shouting, "I've heard about that woman, and I don't want my own son to get killed trying send her away to the police,"

"You don't know what she did mum!" Max was shouting, "Do you remember Drew Adams? The guy who May used to participate against in contests!"

"Yes! What about him?" Mum shouted back at Max.

"Leila Jones stabbed him! She's a damn psychic too! That's why no ones gotten her!"

"Leila Jones stabbed Drew Adams?" said mum, her voice faltering, "When was this?"

"Yesterday!" Max shouted, "Just after I called you! May, Ash and Casey met up with Drew a few days for they met up with me, and then yesterday when we were training, Leila came out of no where and stabbed Drew!"

"You saw Drew get stabbed?" said mum, "Or did you follow what I told the both of you years ago and try and escape and go and get the police?"

"Of course we did," said Max with sarcasm, "What sort of idiot does that when someone is getting stabbed to death? May and Drew are going out for goodness sake!"

Mum rounded on me. I looked at Max, who looked a bit sorry now.

"Is there something you've been keeping from me missy?" Mum asked, her eyes narrowing slightly.

"Well, as Max said… I'm going out with Drew, is anything wrong with that?"

"No," said Mum, "I approve of Drew. It's just you should have told me before you started anything!"

We left home shortly after that. Mum began discussing Drew's health, and went on about wanting to make soup for him.

"Max, you really should be carrying your allergy cream around if you're walking around a beach like this," said Mum, once she had exhausted the subject of Drew. There really was only one thing left to tell mum, that we had to get around to telling. In fact, it would probably be the most important thing to tell her. Drew had been injured, but he'd eventually recover. Max may be psychic, but he didn't have to use his powers in front of mum, but my case was different. Eventually, mum would get a grandchild, and there was no way I could hide that from her. I couldn't tell her yet though… there was still the contest.

Luckily, the contest hall was situated on the beach, which meant that it wasn't very far. As soon as we saw the hall, Max breathed a sigh of relief. We entered the cool hall, and the fan seemed to cool my face. When we came to the separate doors for "Competitors" and "Spectators", it was time split up.

"I'll be rooting for both of you!" said mum, "This is the first time the two of you have participated in the same contest! I'm going to try hard to watch both of your battles!"

"Hey May! Max!" someone else called. We looked around, Ash and Casey were running towards us.

"ASH!" called mum, running forth and hugging him.

"This is embarrassing," said Max, watching mum with slight revulsion. Mum let go of Ash.

"This is Casey," Ash added to mum. Mum and Casey shook hands.

"Well, we better get seats," said Ash. The three of them waved and went into the door marked "Spectators". I exchanged a glance with Max,

"Bring it on!"

An hour later, we were sitting in the waiting room. Waiting for our names to be called… someone was doing an appeal with a Shuppet in the field. Once they had finished, the judges scores were shown.

"Can the next contestant, number 59 please take the stage," came the voice from the PA. 59 was Max, meaning that I was next, seeing as I registered after him.

"Good luck," I muttered as he left the waiting room. My eyes went back to the TV, where I could see what was going on.

Max was using Erureido for the first round. This surprised me slightly, because Erureido was one of his best Pokemon for battle, and you had to use two different Pokemon for the different rounds. I didn't know what he was using for the next round.

The MC for the Johto contests was known as MC Gillian.

"Max Maple is the son of one of the Hoenn Gym Leaders, Norman! Please give him a round of applause!"

As soon as the claps had died away, the camera went to Max.

"Go Erureido!" he shouted, throwing his Pokeball. It was a pretty flashy Pokemon for contests, as it looked pretty, but fierce all the same.

Max turned around and reached into his bag, and pulled out what seemed to be a rubber ball. He held it in his hand, and it suddenly seemed to levitate up, up and up. Ascending slowly, the ball glowed an electric blue. The crowd seemed to be in awe about what was going on, of course, none of them really knew Max's secret.

The ball seemed to stop moving in the exact center of the stage. It was at that point that Max clapped his hands together, as though signaling Erureido. Sure enough, his Pokemon leapt up, and seemed to do some sort of cross chop in mid air.

It turned out that the ball had been full of dust which filled the hall.

I couldn't see anything through the thick black dust which had filled the hall, all I could hear was Gillian's voice.

"Max Maple is a rising star in the Hoenn region, and is well known for being the little brother of May Maple! Everyone says there something strange about how he seems to be able to communicate with his Pokemon without actually saying anything! It's a sign of great training… not to mention Max's great battle strategies"

"Something Special" hey? Well, I knew what that was. It wasn't against the rules to use supernatural powers to communicate, as many people had done that in the past.

We heard what seemed like a flicking noise from amongst the dust, and at the moment it seemed to turn blue, and all come together… and compress into the shape of the ball it was. This obviously due to Erureido's psychic attack.

It was a pretty stunning appeal, Erureido was standing the middle of the stage, the ball of dust which was floating above it looked so perfect, that anyone could mistake it for being made of cloth. After staying so still for a long time, the ball finally stopped glowing, and seemed to land slowly into the arms of Erureido.

Max bowed, and grinned at his Pokemon. Now it was time for the comments of the judges. All of them said that the appeal was mysterious, yet stunning. Personally, I knew Max's secret, so whilst Erureido was extremely well trained, I knew exactly how he was communicating.

Then it was time to for the scores, and this was what was stunning. 10… 10… 10! Max had gotten himself a perfect ten. I did find the appeal impressive, but it wasn't anything absolutely unique.

"Can the final contestant please come up," came Gillian's voice. That was me. I had sort of forgotten that it was my turn.

I passed Max as I moved towards the stage.

"That was great!" I muttered, he smiled back at me.

"Thanks, and good luck," he said, "I'd like to face you in the finals somewhere,"

I progressed on. It had been so long since I had entered a contest… I had almost forgotten what it was like. The crowd, the judges, the applause… it all seemed like a past dream…

Yet, I felt back at home again. I loved contests, and whilst I had taken a break from them, here I was, still determined to win.

"Umbreon! I choose you!" I threw my Pokeball up in the air, and Umbreon made it's contest debut. I had entered it in the past, as Eevee, but as Umbreon, it had never hit the stage.

Ever since I had lost to Max a few days back, I had worked on improving Umbreon's move set. There was no doubt about how bad it was, I had to admit. Four moves of the same type didn't go very well together. Not just in contests, but in battles too, as I had found out to my expense when I had lost to Max.

Umbreon's new and improved move set contained of: Moonlight, Thief, Mean Look and Double Team. According to Max, these weren't exactly the best moves for battle, seeing as there was only one attacking move, but for now I was satisfied. It wasn't like I was going to battle for a while.

"What a surprise! May Maple, the older sister of Max, must have been his mentor! She was fairly well known years ago, when she entered contests in both Hoenn and Johto and managed to get far in both Grand Festivals! Looking at that Umbreon, something tells me that the years haven't had her slow down one bit!" said Gillian.

Max's mentor? I had a want to laugh… Max had sort of been my mentor. Either way, I wanted to prove something in this contest, the fact that I hadn't slowed down at all. I was still in it… but was I? Hopefully I could prove to myself that I was still a great coordinator.

"Okay!" I said, a little loudly. I sort of wished I was Max, that way I could make everything more surprising, "Umbreon! Use Double Team!"

Umbreon clones filled the stage. Arranging themselves in a circle around the arena… Now for my next move.

"Mean Look! Go!" I shouted. Umbreon and the many clones plunged the crowd into penetrating stares, the crowd seemed to look scared and tense. This was precisely the effect that I wanted.

"Let's remove their fright Umbreon!" I said, looking around at the crowd, "Use Moonlight,"

Everything inside the hall seemed to soothe down as a beautiful night sky seemed to erupt into the hall. Stars twinkling above us, the crowd seemed to soothe down instantly. Some sighing with relief, and others just going "Aaaaah…" and doing things that showed calamity. This was perfect, maybe I had a chance of surprising them and showing them that Max was no better than me…

"Umbreon! Finish it off with thief,"

Umbreon jumped. It looked like it was threatening to pounce on the audience…. The moonlight evaporated, as did the Umbreon clones… leaving just the real deal.

The crowd had been taken from relief into screams… all looking frightened and shocked again. Mission accomplished, I had surprised them… it was time for the judges scores.

"May is just full of the same surprises as her brother! It must just run in the family… now onto the judges scores…"

I watched as the scores appeared on the screen. It had been years since I had done this, but at least I felt at home… I wasn't going to be giving up on contests anytime soon… pregnant or not. The scores slowly began to reveal on the board…

10… 10… 10! I jumped… it was the very first time I had received a perfect ten. Ever. Max had mentioned getting them in three of the five contests which he had entered, but I had never won one.

"Will you look at that! The Maples top the charts, both achieving perfect ten!" said Gillian, "This means that they will be facing each other in the final! Boy aren't we looking forward to that!"

"What?" I said, surprise in my face, "Already? The final… what about the semis?"

"Oh… you obviously wouldn't know. In Johto contests, the top two go on to the final. There are no semis, making the appeals more important than ever… you and your brother have topped the charts by far though!"

Once again, something had come suddenly. I wasn't expecting to be put against Max so quickly… now I had to see what would happen.

"Well that's that folks!" said Gillian, "Please come back in one our to see who will walk away with the Olivine Ribbon: May and her Vulpix or Max and his Starmie!"

Max was using Starmie? I hadn't expected that… Vulpix was a fire type, Starmie was a water AND psychic type. Meaning it had a type advantage on Vulpix, not to mention the gift that Max had with psychic types. Would I be able to turn the odds?

"May!"

I looked up. Max was running up to me, behind him was mum.

"Well," said Max, "I suppose it comes down to the two of us…"

"I can't believe it," said mum, "My babies are against each other in a contest… who am I supposed to root for? I'm so proud of both of you… maybe you should ask to just share the ribbon,"

"No freaking way!" said Max, "Mum, you seriously think that we'd do THAT?"

"Language Max," said mum, "I don't know what's gotten into you these years…"

Perhaps mum wasn't aware that we were in the middle of the stage.

"Seriously mum," I said with a sigh and a smile, "I think that Max and I've got to set some things straight,"


	17. The Contest Final

"Welcome back Ladies and Gentlemen! Here in Olivine city, we have a hit a milestone! The first finals battle between two members of the same family, in all of Pokemon Contest history! Who will walk away with the honor? May or Max Maple? We're just going to have to wait and see… our battle starts in fifteen minutes,"

"Honor?" said mum, upon hearing Gillian's voice. We were standing in the waiting room, "I don't find it an honor to defeat your siblings…"

"Mum," said Max, "I'm already nervous enough as it is… besides you're not meant to be here, so you should go back to the stands,"

"What?" said mum. She pulled Max into an unexpected hug, "Don't be nervous baby! We'll all be rooting for you… but you're right… I better go,"

She released Max, gave me a brief kiss on the forehead and left.

"Thank god for that," said Max, he sounded relieved, "She is really starting to annoy me…"

"Why are you being so hard on mum?" I asked. Max had been a bit tough on her lately, shouting at her and being rather rude.

"I'm not trying to be hard on anyone," said Max, "…and if you feel like I'm being hard on you, then I'm sorry… it's just that I'm…"

"Growing up?" I supplied, "I understand…"

"Yeah," said Max, "Those would be the right words for it. I just don't think mum's realized how much I've changed. Also, May… when are you going to tell her about your pregnancy?"

"I don't know," I shrugged, "I really don't know how she's going to take it… I mean, when you told her that you were psychic and all, she didn't seem to take it kindly,"

"Well… that wasn't the bit that really annoyed her. When I told her that I had psychic powers, she just told me that I still had to keep everything fair and not abuse them. The thing that really pissed her off was the fact that I told her that I was going to go after Leila Jones,"

"You're still going after her then?" I asked. I wasn't exactly "pissed off" at Max, to use his words for it, but I was worried. I'm sure that this was how mum felt. Sure, he was older and stronger… but how far could he get? The truth about my pregnancy was really starting to sink in now, and I had a feeling that something could go wrong. Max had been there over the past week, whenever things went wrong.

"Yes," he said, with a little sigh, "I think I've got to go after her. People like her are very rare… and well, I'm like her I suppose…"

"Don't say that!" I snapped, "You're nothing like that evil woman. You've don't have a single similarity. Not even your abilities are similar. You both might have the same powers, but the way I see it… that doesn't matter. It's how you use them…"

"You really are the best big sister…" said Max, "I don't know what to say,"

"Can our finalists please take the stage!" came Gillian's voice from the stage. I looked quickly at Max… we were once again on separate sides. I smiled and nodded at Max…

"Good luck,"

"Don't worry…"

"You just said you were nervous,"

"That was just to get rid of mum!"

We both laughed as we took the stage. We quickly took our separate edges of the stadium, and Gillian made her announcement.

"Olivine City is about to set a milestone… Let the contest begin!"

"I choose you! Starmie!" shouted Max. His Pokemon left it's Pokeball.

"Vulpix, take the stage!" I shouted in a tone just as loud as Max's, using my words from contests long gone.

"So… who's going to start?" said Max. Back in the old days, when Max and I would play little games together, we would always play with one rule…

"Youngest first!" I called back. Max gave a little smile, perhaps he was remembering happier memories from happier times, just like me.

"Okay!" said Max, "Starmie, use Rain Dance!"

As the rain began to fall, my points seemed to fade slightly. This wasn't a good thing. It powered up the power of water type attacks, and even worse, it cut the power of fire type moves. I had to fight without the use of fire. This knocked out one of Vulpix's moves: Flamethrower.

"Vulpix… use dig!" I called to my Pokemon. This would at least protect me from Max's next move.

"You can run…" said Max, a slight arrogance in his voice, "But you can't hide! Starmie! Use Psychic!"

Everybody knew that Psychic was Max's favorite move. Every single one of his Pokemon knew it, and he loved to have them use it. What effect would it have though?

Starmie shot a blue beam of light down the hole which Vulpix had dug. A second later, my Pokemon was being levitated out! I had thought this impossible… but it obviously wasn't. My points were depleting further.

"How'd you do that?" I shouted at Max. He grinned a little,

"You know what I say, psychic really is the best move… it can do just about everything… if you know how to control it!"

I sighed… Maybe he was right. Psychic could do virtually anything. I had half my points or so remaining. Max on the other hand, had all of his points.

"Vulpix, Use Will-o-Wisp!" , regardless of the opponent's type, Will-o-Wisp always burnt. This was a good thing, because a status condition often caused a major loss of points.

The fire from Vulpix's mouth struggled to reach Starmie due to the rain, but in the end it did. As soon as it hit, I noticed the unmistakable signs of a burn on my dear brother's Pokemon. Max lost about a quarter of his points with that. Phew, at least I wasn't getting owned anymore.

"A burn hey?" said Max, looking surprised, "I'm impressed! This'll cool things down though. Starmie, use Blizzard!"

The rain seemed to freeze, and so did the stadium… for a few seconds, everything was freezing cold. Had Max forgotten that Vulpix HAD a type advantage on Ice? It seemed to get rid of Starmie's burn though, and nonetheless, I lost a small amount of points.

I had one move left, either I could use it, or I could go back and use one of the others. There was no point in flamethrower, as Max had a type advantage, dig also wouldn't work because Max could simply use psychic and get Vulpix out of the hole, as for Will-o-wisp, there wasn't much point anymore, because another burn would just be cliché. I decided on my last move.

"Our brother and sister pair have thirty seconds left… which leaves them time for one last move. Will Max go home with the ribbon, and prove that the youngest sibling (Like myself) can be just as powerful as the rest? Or will May be able to overturn the odds?" said Gillian.

Max was smirking,

"Ready when you are!" he shouted.

"I'm already waiting for you!" I called back. I had decided to use my last move, the one I hadn't used yet. I nodded at Max, and he nodded back… it was time to settle the score.

"Vulpix! Use Mimic!" I called, my tone determined.

"Starmie! Use Thunder!" said Max, his voice equally as strong.

Oh boy did the weather have issues today. The rain storm had turned into a thunder storm, as lightning and thunder seemed to come out from everywhere and strike Vulpix. My Pokemon had been beaten to the floor. What was more, I looked up, I was barely hanging on. My points were so little, I couldn't even see the yellow color showing the points I had left amongst the black. Did Vulpix have enough strength to turn it around?

It did! Vulpix was extremely weak, but with a glow of blue coming from it, something extraordinary happened. The lightning appeared again, only this time it struck Starmie.

I watched as Max's points came crashing down, and I still tried to keep my eyes on his Pokemon. Thunder seemed to drain it of all of it's power. Of course, Thunder did have a type advantage on water types, not to mention the fact that rain dance caused thunder to power up. I had just taken Max's strategy, reversed it, and sent it crashing right back at him.

Thud. I looked around, Starmie had fainted.

"Starmie is unable to battle!" said Gillian, "May and Vulpix win!"

I was relieved. I had won the battle! I looked up into the crowd, Ash and Casey were screaming with cheers, and mum was looking hesitant. Max on the other hand, was looking a bit upset. I walked up to him, and made to shake his hand.

"You did well, Starmie," he was saying, he sighed, looked up at me, and smiled, "And so did you May… that was the first contest that I have ever entered that I lost in, but I knew that if I were to lose to anyone, it would be you,"

"Don't say that… you're a lot better than me, I suppose it was just my luck that you used thunder,"

"No, it wasn't luck. It was me being stupid…" said Max, "Why didn't I try and foresee your move before I used mine?"

"May," said someone else, I turned around and found that it was Gillian who had spoken, "Here is your ribbon, congratulations!"

The Olivine ribbon was beautiful, a blue color which resembled the sea, it fit the city perfectly.

"Thanks," I said to Gillian, as I took the ribbon and pinned it to my shirt, "Wow… I don't believe this! It's the first contest I've ever won in all of Johto,"

The crowd was clapping and cheering and so was Max. I was so happy… After everything that had happened, it was just a relief to win this contest.

"That ribbon looks great on you," said Max, nodding. I smiled. The crowd was slowly parting and leaving, so we decided to leave too.

"Thanks… now I've just got one thing to worry about, and that's telling mum the news. She really shouldn't have come. I don't know how or when to tell her,"

"Don't worry," said Max, biting his lower lip, "I'm sure it'll be fine…"

"But mum will want me to terminate!" I said as we exited the arena. Max stopped walking sharply, he rounded on me.

"If you don't want to terminate, then mum can't force you to," he said, his voice ever so sharp.

"But I'm still her child… and I'm not eighteen yet, that means that I'm still mum's responsibility,"

"I won't let her force you," said Max, continuing to walk, "She can't make you do something like that. It's your decision, and yours alone,"

"But you can't stop her…" I said, now worrying slightly. While he was more confident than me, Max didn't have any power over mum, "You're her kid too…"

"Oh yeah?" said Max, arrogance coming back to his voice, "You just watch me!"

"May! Max! There you are babies… congratulations to you both,"

I looked up, it was mum. She was running towards us, her arms out.

"Speak of the devil," said Max under his breath. Mum seized us both and pulled us into a hug,

"Oh that battle was ever so close… I'm so proud of you both… to think that my little ones set a milestone in Johto… oh I'm so proud…"

She hugged us so close to her. Max was right, whilst she was a lovely mother, she was failing to notice that we were growing up. I wanted to her my news, get it over and done with… but something just stopped me.

"That was so good!" said Casey, running up beside mum, Ash at her side, "Congrats May! You too Max… that was so close!"

"Yeah… you both did so well!" said Ash, "We should go back and visit Drew… he would have seen this on TV, and I'm sure he'll be proud of you too May… I'm sure this would have made him so happy!"

"Yeah, he would be," said Casey, "I think that we should go and see him again…"

"Can I drive this time?" asked Ash, Casey frowned at him.

"We don't want to land anyone else in hospital," she said with frustration.

"I'd love to come with you and visit Drew…" said Mum, "I haven't seen the poor dear for ages…"

Max rolled his eyes, and I smirked slightly. It was funny to have all of these caring people around you, all arguing over various things.

When we reached the car, Ash got into the drivers seat before Casey could get there. Casey scowled.

"Ash!" she said irritably, "If you damage my car… you will pay!"

She hesitantly walked around the car and took a seat in the passenger side.

Casey needn't have worried, Ash was driving almost normally now, he was going a little over the limit, but at least he was staying on the road. Perhaps the speed at which he was driving was a good thing, as we seemed to arrive at the hospital rather quickly.

I raced my way into Drew's room, and when I arrived, I found that he was awake, and the TV was still on. As soon as he saw me, his face broke into a large smile.

"May! You were so great in that battle…" he said, "I'm so happy you won!"

"Thanks," I said, getting a little tired of saying it, "How are you feeling?" I muttered, leaning in to kiss him. This was when I noticed that he had taken off his breathing mask.

"Why did you take it off?" I asked quietly, pointing at the mask, "You only had it on for one day…"

"I think my breathing's back to normal," said Drew, "I just can't move… my chest,"

He struggled slightly to sit up. I gently pushed him down,

"Don't work yourself too hard…" I whispered, "I don't want you hurting yourself again,"

"I'm so happy that we're going to be parents," said Drew.

"So am I… but don't struggle to help me. I just want you to get better, and I'll be fine as long as you are,"

"DREW!" came someone else's shout. I looked around, mum was running into the room. Ash, Casey and Max right behind her. Mum ran up to the bed, and knocked me out of the way slightly, and threw her arms around Drew. He spluttered a little,

"Caroline… hi!" he was cringing a little now. He did seem to experience pain whenever someone touched his chest, let alone squeezed it, "If you don't mind… can you sort of let go… that's where it sort of hurts,"

Mum let go of Drew almost immediately.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," she said, looking the part, "I forgot… oh, you poor boy, I never thought I'd see you like this… That Leila Jones is a terrible woman. No one should approach her," she shot a dirty look at Max who had taken to leaning against the wall. He shot a look back at her which simply said "What?"

"Oh May," said Mum, turning back to me, "I'm so glad you picked Drew here as your boyfriend… I'm sure you're so close together…"

Should I tell her now? About my pregnancy. What if she went mad, and told me that on no circumstances I could keep the baby… that would hurt Drew.

I looked at Max, who seemed to have read my mind (Not that it was really all that surprising), he nodded. Was he indicating that I should tell mum? I looked back at him and shrugged. His voice then filled my head…

"Tell her now… it'll be okay… trust me,"

He had used telepathy, of which I was sure. I sighed, knowing that it was time to let the news slip to mum. Time to let her know of the truth…

"Mum," I said clearly, "There's something I have to tell you…"

"What's that baby?" said Mum, turning around and looking at me, "You know you can tell me anything!"

"Well…" I said, a sigh coming to me, this was harder than I thought. "Mum, I'm pregnant,"


	18. Growing Up

Hey everyone. Like my new sig banner? Anyway… here's the next chapter. Sorry about the two day wait, you know… school.

The words didn't seem to register immediately with mum. It took her a few seconds to register the words, or so it seemed. She opened and closed her mouth once or twice, before she actually said anything.

"What did you say?" she said, her voice a little quiet.

"Mum, don't pretend you didn't hear her," said Max from the wall, "You can't get any damn clearer than that… she's pregnant!"

Mum shot Max yet another dirty look. He hadn't even looked at her when he had talked. It was only then that she got what he was saying. She turned back to look at me,

"Are you serious?" she said, her voice sounding shaky. I nodded, Mum didn't move, she opened and closed her mouth once more. She hid her face in her hands. Everyone looked eager yet anxious about what her reaction would be, everyone except Max.

"Mum," he said irritably, "Might as well tell May what you're thinking, or I'll tell her for you!"

Ash and Casey had backed away slightly, as though not wanting to get involved. It was at that point that Ash decided to speak up,

"Us, as in Casey and I, are going down to the coffee shop, okay?" he said a little nervously. Casey nodded eagerly.

"Knock yourselves out," said Max, not looking away from mum. Ash and Casey snuck out the door.

Drew was looking utterly surprised at what was going on, perhaps he had thought that I had already told mum about my pregnancy

"May, you're going having a baby with Drew, right?" said mum, looking at me. I nodded. Max rolled his eyes. Mum clicked her tongue,

"That's even worse," she said sadly. I was a little surprised,

"What? You said you approved of Drew," I said, a little shocked. Drew was looking deep in thought… how could mum not like him? He could be arrogant, but he was innocent and sweet deep inside.

"No, it's not that… It's just that he's in hospital, and I think this is too much for him, and you…. I think I'll have to stay a while," she said, biting her lip.

"Don't worry mum," I said slightly relieved, "It's only nine months,"

"What?" said mum, looking slightly shocked, "You don't get a termination after the baby is born! See what I mean, you don't know enough for this,"

"Termination?" I said, a little confused. Did mum really want me to terminate…

"Yes," said mum, "I know, it'll be worrying, because it hurts a bit… but don't worry, I'll be here with you baby…"

"Stop calling her baby!" said Max from the wall. He was looking up now, and he looked rather annoyed, "Sure! May is still your kid, but she's not a baby anymore! Nor am I!"

He said this all rather loudly. All eyes were on him now.

"Max!" said mum irritably, but softly all the same, "This isn't your business, go and wait outside or stop talking,"

"Did you just tell me to stop talking?" said Max, his tone now deadly and extremely loud, "Mum, let me tell you something – you don't have to make our decisions anymore. I'm fourteen and May's almost sixteen! We're old enough to do whatever we want, and if I don't want to stop talking I don't have to. Leila Jones told me the same thing a few days ago, she even bound my mouth shut, but did I stop talking? No. In the same way, May doesn't have to terminate, if she doesn't want to,"

"For the love of God, Max! We're in a hospital!" said Mum, firing up, "I don't know what happened in the last few years, but you've just lost your sense of respect. Leila Jones could have killed you, and you could be lying here just like Drew is,"

"I know that she could have killed me!" said Max, not lowering the volume of his voice one bit, "But I don't CARE!"

"So you would rather keep talking and get yourself killed? You need to grow up Max, and listen!"

"Don't tell me to grow up! That's what I did these last few years. You need to realize that I did, and you need to let me do what I want, and do the same with May!"

"Max. You're lucky that Leila Jones didn't kill you, now listen to me. What if something went wrong during your sister's pregnancy and she died? She wants to terminate, she doesn't want to risk it, and I'm sure she'd appreciate it if you kept your nose out of her business,"

"Mum, why don't YOU keep your nose out of her business!" said Max, "She doesn't want to terminate. She took a risk when she slept with Drew, just like I did with Leila Jones!"

"How do you know that she doesn't want to terminate?" said Mum skeptically. Max was obviously just holding her up, her real instinct was to talk to me.

"I'm a bloody psychic!" said Max, irritation getting the best of him, "And also because May personally told me that she didn't want to terminate, and knowing you, I promised her that I will not let you force her to!"

"Is that true?" said mum, rounding back on me, "You don't want to terminate? You want to go through with this?"

I sighed, "Yes, I do mum… Max is right, we took a risk, and I don't mind, I really think that this will be a great experience,"

It was mum's turn to sigh, "May, baby," - Max rolled his eyes but didn't speak – "I know that you don't want to terminate, but listen to me. It might be difficult. I was twenty-five years old when you were born, and I couldn't really cope very well, and with your brother I was twenty-seven, and it was even worse… especially seeing as he's the youngest. My mum was like this too, and they say that it's genetic, and I think that it'll be better off if you wait a few years first,"

"Mum. Will you just let May make up her own mind?" said Max, "It's up to her, not you!"

"Max," said mum, rounding back on him, "This isn't up to you. Listen to me, you're a boy, and you don't know of much pregnancy. The only males that should really get a say in this are the father of the baby, and the father of the pregnant wom-"

"In short, every male related directly to the baby except for the siblings of the pregnant person," said Max under his breath, Mum narrowed her eyes.

"What did you say?" she said suspiciously, Max shrugged,

"Never mind," he said impatiently, "Okay, well, you haven't asked DREW what he thinks about May having a termination,"

"I was just about to ask him. And mark my words Max, if you have somehow teleportellically told made him say that May doesn't need a termination, then I will know," she said, turning to face Drew. Max rolled his eyes once again,

"It's_ telepathically_ and no, I haven't," he said irritably.

"Anyway," said mum, "Drew, what do you think about May having a termination? I'm sure you don't want her to suffer…"

Drew, who had been watching Max and mum shout at each other rather nervously, seemed to jump back to his senses. He looked down before he answered though.

"Well, I think we should keep the baby… unless May really wants to terminate," he said, sighing. Mum rounded on Max and narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

"WHAT?" said Max in outrage, "I didn't make him say that!"

"No seriously Mrs. Maple," said Drew from the bed, "I've never liked termination… you see, my mum always wanted and loved kids, and before I was born she lost two to miscarriage, and then she had me. After that she thought that maybe she'd be able to have more children… and then…" he sobbed, "There was one day when I was three, when she told me that I was going to become a big brother… only a few weeks later, there was this day…"

FLASHBACK

It was summer, the sun was shining brightly outside a small house in the middle of a calm residential street. Inside the house however, a woman was screaming, tears streaming out of her eyes. A man stood by her side, trying to calm her down… her screaming could be heard in the next room where a young boy was playing with building blocks.

The little boy was only three years old, and like an average three year old, his mind was fixed on building up a tall tower. An older person would have heard the screaming and gone to see what was wrong, but three years old was a little young for that.

The boy had almost completed his stack of blocks, and at that point he wanted to put a particular red one on the top. He leaned over his tower to pick up the block (Which lay on the other side of tower) and sent his structure tumbling down. Upon noticing this, he looked at the mess of blocks on the floor and then he started laughing.

He moved to pick up another block and start again, but at that moment, his father, the man who had been tending to the woman in the other room, entered the room. The woman could still be heard screaming…

"Drew," said the man to his son, the little boy looked around.

"Guess what daddy! I made this big tower and then it fell," he said smiling at his father. The man sighed,

"There's something I have to tell you," said the man, sitting down beside his son.

"What is it daddy?" said the boy, moving closer to his father. The man put his arm around his only child, and sighed once more.

"Well something happened, and mummy's baby disappeared, just like your tower did just then," said the man, looking into his son's eyes.

"Does that mean I'm not going to be a big brother?" said the boy, the man shook his head.

"Not yet," said his father sadly, "But one day…" he picked up one of his son's blocks, "We will start again," he stacked the block on top of another, beginning another tower.

"Is that why mummy's sad?" asked his son, "Because her baby disappeared?"

"Yes, that's why mummy's sad," said the man, sighing.

"I'm going to give her a hug then," said the boy, "When I'm sad, mummy gives me a hug and then I feel better,"

He stood up and ran into the other room, where his mother was sobbing into the bed sheets. He was a little too young to realize all the pain she was going through, but all the same, he tried to climb onto their rather high bed. His mother looked up, and she opened her mouth as she looked at the only baby which she did manage to give birth to…

"Drew…" she said softly, the crying still present in her voice, "Come here,"

She moved forwards and she threw her arms around her son, hugging him so tightly and close to her.

"Are you okay mummy?" asked the boy, looking into her face, "Daddy told me what happened…"

"Oh," said the woman, looking into his face and rubbing his face with her hand, "This has made me realize how precious are you… I love you so much, my only baby… I'm not going to let anything happen to you…"

END FLASHBACK

"And that's what happened. A miscarriage that my mum never wanted reduced her to tears, and I just don't think it's very fair to her if I purposely get rid of my child…" said Drew.

I was crying now. His story had been really touching… Just like Drew's mum had realized on that very day, I was finally realizing how lucky I was to have conceived a child, and I didn't want to hurt Drew's feelings. For the first time, I moved my hand, and rested it on my stomach… I couldn't feel anything yet, but I knew that there was a baby in there. Mum was looking a little upset.

"So, have your parents had any kids since?" she asked. Max stared at her, his eyebrows raised.

"No," said Drew, "My mum died two years after that happened…"

"In childbirth?" asked Mum. Max lost his temper again,

"How bloody insensitive are you woman?" he said loudly, "I had a feeling you'd jump to that conclusion!"

"No," said Drew, not looking hurt by her suggestion, "My parents were both killed in the war of Hoenn. I don't underestimate death by childbirth though… and if May doesn't want to take that risk, then I understand,"

"No," I said sharply, "I'm keeping the baby, after what happened to your mum… I think that termination should be banned,"

"You really think that?" asked Drew. I nodded. Mum heaved a great sigh,

"I give up… obviously you've made up your mind May," she said slowly, "And I think that I was a bit hard on you today May… and you too Max… May, if you want to keep your baby, then I think that I've realized that I can't impact your decision at all,"

"What?" I said looking at her in the eye, "You're saying that I can keep the baby?"

"Yes," said mum, nodding, "You can. Here is a decision of mine though. I'm going to return home tomorrow, and then I'm going to pack my bags and come back here… I want to stay with you,"

"Can't we all go home though?" I asked.

"What about Drew? Maybe we can return after he recovers… or maybe, your baby might just be a Johto baby,"

"Mum," I said, tears in my eyes, "I love you,"


	19. Max Takes Off

W00t W00t! We've nearly hit 18 chapters. I never really expected this. Either way, I'm going to make a few little announcements. Firstly, I'm going to make a chapter index at the start, so that people don't have search through posts to find a chapter.

I also can't believe that I never posted this: http://i26. the beginning of Make Your Move. I got the idea for the story from that random picture up there which I created.

At first, Max wasn't even meant to appear in the story, but then one day, I was watching the Deoxys Crisis episode, when my sister was like "Max must be psychic or something, seeing as all the psychic legendary Pokemon seem to be able to communicate with him!" I'm like… BINGO! Yay! I found a Plot Bunny!

That was just a little fun fact… now on with the story.

"May," someone whispered, "Wake up, quickly,"

It was far too early to wake up, even for Ash's standard. Ever since we had set out for Johto, I never actually had a chance to sleep in. I grumbled in my sleep.

"Quick… I have to get going soon," the voice whispered again. The thing that shocked me was the fact that the voice had used the word "I" instead "We". I opened my eyes slowly, and found that it was Max who had spoken. He was fully dressed, and slung over his shoulder was his bag. This could only mean one thing, he was going to set off after Leila Jones.

"Max," I said, sitting up in bed, "You told me you were going to stay a week or so!"

"I had thought that I would…" said Max, a little distantly, "But now that mum's here, I think I've got to leave now,"

"Max!" I said, startled by this piece of information, "Mum isn't all that angry at you, she forgave you yesterday and she saw what she did wrong!"

"That's why I want to leave now… if I say goodbye to her, or stay longer, she'll just worry, and she won't let me go…"

"She'll worry even more if you leave without saying goodbye!" I said sharply. Max shook his head,

"May. I've just gotta go… I feel so bad for shouting at mum yesterday, it's just that I get so angry when I know that people are keeping things from others, like mum was yesterday… sometimes I wish I didn't have this power, it's just too complicated…"

"Max, you're fine the way you are," I said simply, "If you didn't have your power, then we probably wouldn't have met the other day, or maybe mum wouldn't have let me keep the baby… or Drew could have died… please stay…" I felt a tear running down my face, "Max! I'm scared!" I shouted drastically.

Years ago, Max would get scared of Pokemon bigger than he was and come running to me. Now however, it was visa versa. I was the one who was scared.

"I don't know what to do… what if something happens with Drew? Or my pregnancy? Drew can't help me with that for now, and I don't want to pressure him… I need you here!"

"Oh May," said Max, dropping his bag and moving closer to me, "What about Ash and Casey? I'm sure they'll help you... why exactly are you leaning on me?"

"Because you're my brother, and you'll be closer to me than any friend has ever been," I whispered. Max knelt down beside me and took my hands

"Listen to me May," he said seriously, "I'll be there with you wherever I am and wherever you are. Just think of me, and think of whatever you want to tell me… I'll get the message. I promise,"

"What?" I said, looking into his eyes, "Can you do that? With your powers…"

"No. You don't have to be psychic to be able to get that sort of message. Anyone can send a message to anyone they love with their heart. May, trust me," he smiled.

He stood up, took his bag, and walked out of the door. I jumped out of bed, and chased him to the front door.

"Max! Wait… what if you die or something?" I said as I reached the porch. Max turned and looked at me.

"Listen to me," he said, the seriousness coming back to his voice, "Remember what I said about always being with you no matter what? No matter what means no matter what, whether I'm murdered or whether I fall off a cliff or whether I return still in one piece, I'll be here with you,"

"Really?" I said, wiping another tear from my eye. Max nodded and turned around, facing the long road ahead.

"We will meet again someday… and until that day comes, just remember that I'm here for you,"

"Bye," I said, knowing that I couldn't stop him leaving, "I'll miss you,"

Max raised a hand and waved, then a gust of wind blew and I shut my eyes. When I opened them again, Max had gone. Off on a journey.

I tried to head back to sleep, but I couldn't… I was worried about Max. He had his Pokemon there with him, but would it be enough? Would his powers keep him safe from Leila Jones? Would we really meet again? Max was fierce, but he had a heart all the same. The change in his personality was for the better, and that was certain.

I wasn't hungry, and there was nothing to do. I thought that as nobody else was up yet, I could go and visit Drew. I had wanted to go and visit him privately, and so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity. I checked my watch, it was 7:00AM. It would be visiting hours at the hospital, meaning that it was possible for me to go and visit.

I got changed hurriedly, and raced outside. I knew that I had to walk, and I decided that I'd get food on the way back. The road to the hospital was becoming very familiar now. It didn't take very long for me to get there, once I did, I just counted the doors as I walked towards Drew's room.

When I arrived, I was surprised to see him fully awake, watching TV. He was still lying down though, maybe he couldn't sit up yet.

"Hi Drew," I said, walking into the room. I noticed that he was watching a replay of yesterday's contest on TV.

"Oh," said Drew, looking around slightly, "Hey May," he said heavily. I pulled up a chair next to his bed.

"How're you feeling?" I asked, sitting down.

"Okay, I guess," said Drew, sighing, "Did you wake up this early just to come and see me?"

"Nah," I said, turning and looking at the TV. Someone I didn't know was making their appeal, "Max woke me up… he left this morning, to go after… you know, _her_,"

"You mean Leila Jones?" asked Drew, "I thought he wasn't going to leave for a while,"

"So did I," I said, shrugging, "But he wanted to go today. Anyway, how are you? Can you sit up yet? Or does is it too painful?"

"The nurse was in this morning, and well, she had me do a few sit ups," said Drew, a small smile appearing on his face, "It still does hurt a bit… but I'll try…"

He put his thickly bandaged hands to the bed and struggled to push himself up. I had a feeling that "a bit" was an understatement, judging by the look on his face, Drew was experiencing a lot of pain.

"Don't struggle," I said, a bit of concern in my voice, "I don't want you to hurt yourself any more…"

Drew's hands gave way and he collapsed on the bed. For a second, I thought that he had gone back to being unconscious, but a second later, I heard a sob.

"I hate my life…" Drew muttered, the crying in his voice, "Why does everything have to happen to me? First I lose all of my relatives and now… and I don't think I'll ever be able to walk again,"

"Don't say that," I whispered, standing up and taking his hand, "At least you've got a lot of your strength back… it's only been two days. Trust me, you'll be walking in no time… and as for your relatives, just remember that this is our baby Drew," I added, putting my other hand to my stomach. Drew turned his head slightly

"You're right," said Drew with a sigh, wiping his eyes, "I'm really glad that I'm going to be a father… I mean, that day when my parents told me that I was going to be a big brother, I was so excited because there was going to be a new baby in the family…"

"Yeah," I said nodding, "I had just turned one when my parents told me the exact same thing,"

"One?" said Drew, "I thought you guys were two years apart,"

"Almost," I said, "Max was born in March of the year I turned two. I was born in May… that's why he's fourteen and I haven't turned sixteen yet,"

"I'm guessing that's how you got your name?" said Drew, smiling slightly, "Being born in May,"

"Mhmm," I replied, "May the third is my birthday,"

"Wow," said Drew, "That's in two weeks…" his face fell slightly, "I'll still be in hospital,"

"Don't worry," I said soothingly, "We'll celebrate it right here, in the hospital… my ideal birthday gift would be to be with you,"

"Really," said Drew. He smiled, "We've come a long way… sixteen years,"

"When's your birthday?" I asked, glad to see him smiling, "You're sixteen this year too, you're looking forward to that, right?"

"Yeah," said Drew, nodding, "July the nineteenth is my birthday. Few days before that is July the fourteenth… that's what I'm not looking forward to"

"Why? What's wrong with July the fourteenth?" I asked, wondering what it could possibly be.

"Day my parents died," said Drew, "This year, it'll be their tenth anniversary,"

"Oh… I'm sorry," I said, really meaning it. Wow, ten years? Drew had really gone for that long, alone.

"Have you had your breakfast yet?" Drew asked, as though trying to take my mind off sympathizing him. I shook my head.

"You better get going then," said Drew, "I don't want to put you off your meal…"

"I'll stay a bit longer, seeing as they don't serve hamburgers 'till 11:00,"


	20. On Your Feet

Chapter 19 – Learning to Walk

When I arrived home, I found the door was unlocked. I crept inside, and I found mum sitting on the couch, still in her nightgown. She was looking at what looked suspiciously like a photograph. I put down my handbag and walked over to her.

"What are you looking at?" I asked, trying to stay calm. Mum kept her eyes fixed on the photo, but she smiled at me.

"Come and see this photo," she said, still not looking at me. I sat down beside her, and I found that the photo she was looking at was one that I recognized as being a few years old. It had been taken on the summer of four years back, and it featured our family. All of us, Mum, Dad, Max and I.

"This was the last time we were all together," said mum. She put her arm around me… this was weird. I looked back at the photo. There I was, looking posy and trying to hog the spotlight. I had forgotten that I used to that. Max was looking totally carefree, this was obviously before he found out that he was psychic. There was mum, looking smiley, one arm around Max. And there was dad, looking hardy, his arm around mum. This reminded me about something…

"Mum," I asked, looking at her, "Where's dad? Is he still at the gym?"

"No," said mum, with a sigh, "Just after you left, he was started to count up all of the gym battle defeats he had taken and he felt that there were too many. Your father is exploring Hoenn, training,"

"Oh," I said, looking back at the photo, "So who's the gym leader now?"

"One of your dad's friends for now, but one day, you or your brother will take over, as the permanent gym leader," said mum. I shook my head,

"I don't really want to be a gym leader though… it's just not the right job for me," I said, with a sigh of my own.

"I'm not angry at you for saying that," said mum, tightening her arm around me, "It'll just go to Max, I'm sure he'll want the job,"

"He will want to, the only problem is that he will never use normal Pokemon in battle and Hoenn already has a psychic gym," I said with a smirk. Mum laughed,

"Max is just like your father, so determined to do whatever he wants. Did you know, that before your father took over, Petalburg city had the flying gym, only your father had a fear of heights. The gym is allowed to have a change, don't worry. They're even starting to look the same, if Max cuts his hair, then maybe they will. I think he even inherited those psycho powers from your dad,"

"What?" I said, astounded, "Dad's a psychic?!?"

"No, he wasn't," said mum, laughing a bit, "It's just that dad always used to say that he felt like his grandmother – your great grandmother – could read minds, and that she seemed to know everything, she also seemed to be able to cook everything so quickly, as though she could cut things without a knife. That was before psychic powers were studied and completely discovered though, so everybody just thought she was strange. Now dad just says that he was hallucinating back then but I'm starting to think that his grandmother was a psychic though, explaining how our little Maxie ended up like he is,"

"Mum," I said, smiling at the photograph in her hands, "Do you think we will all be together again? As a family,"

"I'm sure we will one day," said mum, smiling back at me.

As the week passed, things seemed to steadily get better. Drew was slowly getting over his injuries, and slowly, he was getting his strength back. Mum returned home and then came back, ready to stay with us for a while. My sixteenth birthday was drawing nearer and the truth about my pregnancy was really sinking in now. I often found myself just rubbing my stomach, I really couldn't believe that I was going to become a mother.

Exactly a week before my birthday, I found myself in the hospital with Drew. He could sit up now, but he was still very weak. Mum, Ash and Casey had all gone out to buy things for my birthday. There I was, sitting with Drew. This was when the nurse walked in. I hadn't actually talked to any of Drew's nurses before, but they all seemed pretty nice.

"Hello Mr. Adams," said the nurse as she entered the room, "How're you feeling today?"

"A bit better than yesterday," said Drew with a little smile. Drew had vomited once the previous day, but he had gotten quite comfortable with sitting up.

"Oh," said the nurse, then noticing me, "This must be your girlfriend?" she added. Drew nodded, the nurse smiled at me.

"I'm glad that you're here," the nurse continued, "I'm Hannah. Anyway, I thought that if one of Drew here's friends could come in today, he could go around for a little walk with them, it's been a week since his injury, and maybe it's the right time to get him back on his feet,"

"Walk?" said Drew, sounding weakly surprised, "I don't think I can walk,"

"Your girlfriend is going to go with you, and don't worry… you'll be fine, you're a very brave young lad," said Hannah, smiling at Drew. She really did seem to be nice, "If you get sore, or can't walk for whatever reason, don't worry. I'm going to stay here and change your bed sheets, so don't worry,"

"But how far will I have to walk," said Drew, he looked panicky, "I don't even think I can stand up,"

"Drew," I said, looking at him, "I'm coming with you. I'll hold your hand, don't worry,"

"You have a girlfriend just as sweet as you," said Hannah, smiling at me, "You only need to walk as far as you can manage. If you can't walk, then you don't have to, we're just going to try getting you to walk the hospital corridor,"

"Okay," said Drew, looking slightly defeated, "I'll try, but I don't think…"

"You'll be fine," I said, moving closer to the bed.

"Good," said Hannah, "Now Drew, can you take your girlfriends hand, and just try to push yourself up. It will hurt a bit I understand, but just try,"

I reached out and grabbed one of Drew's hands. It was still bandaged, but not as heavily as it had been. I could feel how soft and tender his hand was beneath the bandages. Drew tightened his grip on my hand and bit his lip. With that he sat up slowly, and tried to push up his body. He gave a little scream, but still managed. I smiled at him.

"See, how was it?" I asked, looking into his face. He shrugged.

"I don't know… it was okay, but my chest hurts. I just can't walk," he said, sounding teary. I pulled him slightly closer and put my free arm around him, being careful not to touch the areas which were causing him pain.

"It'll be okay," I whispered, he looked up. There were tears in his eyes, "I'll be right here beside you, okay,"

"You're doing really well," said Hannah, "Now, can you just take a few steps. One at a time… easy does it,"

Drew's grip on my hand got tighter. He slowly lifted one leg, and took his first step since his injury. I made to clap, but I didn't want to let go. He looked slightly relieved.

"See," I said, laughing slightly, "You're fine… let's go for a walk through the corridor,"

"You're coming too, right?" said Drew. I nodded.

"Of course, I'm not going to leave you," I said. He gripped my hand even tighter, now it was almost painful, but I knew that it didn't come close to the pain that Drew was experiencing, I really was proud of him. He continued to take small steps, hesitating before each one and then looking relieved once he had put his foot down. He wouldn't let go of my hand though, perhaps he was scared of falling. When we reached the door, I led him out into the hallway. We had gone about two third of the way up, when Drew's free hand just clutched at his chest, and his breathing became heavy.

"I can't go any further," he said looking at me and shaking his head, "It's just too painful,"

"You're doing well so far," I said, bending slightly forward and kissing him on the cheek, "I think you can go to the end of the corridor at least, I know you've got it in you,"

Drew turned his head, and took a few more steps, still clutching at his chest. That was when his legs gave way, and collapsed. I caught him around the hip with my free hand, and I bent down, lowering him to the floor. He obviously couldn't go very much further, but I was still proud of him.

"I'm such a loser," said Drew, there really were tears flowing from his eyes now, "I can't even walk… I don't think I ever will be able to,"

"We'll try again tomorrow," I whispered, smiling at him, "Don't worry, you will be okay in a few days. You got really far for your first try… and also, just remember that whether you can walk or not, I'll love you all the same,"

"Really?" said Drew, he raised his hand to wipe his face, "I love you so much May… thank-you,"

"None of this is your fault," I muttered, "I'll carry you back,"

"No way," said Drew, shaking his head, "You're already carrying my baby, and I already feel like I'm a burden to you,"

"I'm not going to leave you here and going to run back and getting Hannah. I'm not just going to leave you, even for a second,"

"But May, no girl carries her boyfriend. Not even for a second," said Drew desperately.

"Then I'm not a girl," I said, reaching down and heaving him up. For his age, Drew was pretty small in stature. Only a little taller than me, he was rather thin. He wasn't as heavy as I had expected either.

"You're so much like my mother," said Drew, giving in, "She was the last person to carry me,"

"Shhhh," I whispered, walking slowly back to Drew's ward. When I arrived, I found that Hannah had just finished changing the bed sheets and was marking something on Drew's status sheet. When she noticed me carrying Drew, she looked a little surprised but then she smiled.

"You are both really sweet," she said, beckoning me to Drew's bed, "How far did you get?"

"Almost to the end of the corridor," I said, resting Drew in his bed. Hannah once again looked surprised.

"Wow, you really are a very brave boy," she said to Drew. I looked down to find that he had closed his eyes and was supposedly asleep. Hannah noticed too.

"I think he's exhausted, fifteen is too young for all of this, not to mention how he has a rather small body for his age," she said, "How long have you two known each other for?"

"Since we were both twelve," I said, letting go of Drew's hand, "Time really flies… now we're expecting our first child,"

Hannah's eyes darted to stomach.

"I'm not showing yet," I said with a little laugh, "I only became pregnant a little while ago, about a week before Drew got hurt… it seemed to raise his spirits when I told him,"

"Wow," said Hannah, nodding, "Well, good luck with your pregnancy,"

"Thanks," I said with a smile.

--

I set off home with that. I didn't want to disturb Drew, Hannah was probably right, Drew was exhausted. He was well on the way to recovery though.

When I arrived home, I found that everyone was already there. Ash and Casey were playing chess and I could smell chicken from the other room, which meant that mum was cooking.

"Checkmate!" said Casey triumphantly as I walked in, "Ash, seriously, did you get to the Pokemon league on strategy? Because you suck at chess, no offence, but this is the fourth time I've beaten you in a row!"

"What does chess have to do with strategy?" said Ash, looking revolted, "Chess is just a stupid game. Ugh, can we do something else?"

"Hi May!" said Casey, ignoring Ash's comment as she noticed me, "How's Drew?"

"He's Good," I said, sitting down to watch their game, "He's really tired now, see, we went on a walk,"

"Can he walk now?" said mum, who had just entered the room, "I thought he was still too weak…"

"This was the first time, we got pretty far but I was holding his hand and everything. He collapsed half way through though, and I had to carry him back,"

"Oh, you carried him back? Wow, that must have made him happy," said mum.

"What do you mean?" I asked, slightly confused.

"May, from the moment I met Drew, I could tell that he was very lonely… the way he used to criticize you like that, I think he was only trying to help, but he's been having trouble socializing. I think it's because of his parents dying, also, I don't think he ever was all that healthy,"

"What?" I said, a little surprised, "Never really was healthy?"

"Yes. He's always looked a bit sick to me. Also if you check his statistics on the chart, you'll find that he's pretty underweight, maybe he was like that when he was born, he did say something about his mother having complications with reproduction,"

"Maybe you're right, perhaps he was born premature or something," I said, sighing. Drew really was extremely unfortunate. Then something struck me. "Mum! Will that effect my pregnancy? If Drew's mum wasn't very adapt to it… will I be okay?"

"How your pregnancy goes has nothing to do with the father, it has more to do with how your mother went through it,"

"But-" I stuttered, "Mum, you said that you didn't cope very well either,"

"I was pretty fine with you, to be honest it was Max who was complicated," said mum with a smirk, "But I've worked out a reason behind that. Apparently being pregnant with psychics is meant to be three times harder than to be pregnant with someone who's not,"

"How'd you know that?" said Ash, who had been listening in. Mum laughed.

"I figured that I'd better get to know my own son,"

So peace had been restored between my family. Mum wasn't angry at me, or Max. I visited Drew in hospital for every day of the following week. Slowly, he began to walk faster and faster, and a few days later, he was almost back to normal. Occasionally cringing and sometimes a little weak and exhausted, Drew was generally getting better, for which I was glad. My birthday was steadily getting closer, and I knew that - despite everything that had happened - it could still be a sweet sixteen.


	21. Birthday Emotions

OMG! I've written 20 chapters XD! Well here we are! Well, 20 isn't too much… is it? Hehe. 0.

---------

Chapter 20:

"Wake up May!" came someone's voice, "Happy Birthday!"

I opened my eyes, and the first thing I saw was a stack of presents at the end of my bed. I yawned… I was sixteen. I looked up and I mum standing next to my bed, looking extra happy for me.

"Thanks mum," I said smiling up at her. Mum looked like she was going to cry.

"My little girl is sixteen, how wonderful…" she sobbed, pulling me into a hug, "It just seems like yesterday…"

Here she goes again… I thought with a laugh. I wasn't annoyed this time though, I couldn't believe it either. My life had been sixteen years, wow, I had come pretty far.

"Open the presents!" said mum excitedly. I shook my head,

"I don't want to do anything until I'm by Drew's side… can I open them at the hospital?" I said, trying to look apologetic.

"Yes," said mum, "That's fine… are we going there now?"

"Yeah, I promised Drew that I would spend the entire day with him," I replied.

"But what about your breakfast dear?" asked mum, looking concerned. I shook my head.

"I'm not hungry," I said truthfully. Over the last couple of days, I had lost my appetite at times and then later in the day got it back again. I had guessed that it was part of my pregnancy hormones. Mum bit her lip,

"Are you sure? That's what you said the other day, and then later on you suddenly felt like you were starving sweetie… I don't want to ruin your birthday,"

"I'm positive," I said sharply. Mum looked slightly taken aback, but she smiled all the same.

"Okay, why don't you get dressed so we can get going…" she said happily, "I also want to ask if Drew was born premature,"

"Mum," I said seriously, as I got up, "Don't say anything insensitive. I don't want Drew to start crying on my birthday, besides, it's his business, and if he doesn't want to talk about it, then he doesn't have to,"

"Okay, okay," said Mum, taking a step or so back, "I wasn't going to,"

"Good," I said, moving to my cupboard to pick something out to wear, "He hasn't had the best of pasts, and he really doesn't deserve to be reduced to tears again,"

I once again got changed at top speed and when I went downstairs, I found that Ash and Casey were both up and waiting to wish me happy birthday. After fifteen minutes or so, we set off towards the hospital and towards Drew.

When we arrived, he was once again awake and looking rather cheerful.

"Happy birthday May," he said, making to stand up.

"Thanks," I smiled, getting slightly sick of saying it. I made towards Drew's bed, but he managed to stand up and walk slowly towards me. He pulled me into a hug.

"I wish I could have gotten you a gift…" he muttered into my ear, I shook my head.

"The best gift you can give me is a smile," I whispered. Drew and I broke apart from our little embrace, and Drew led me towards one of the chairs in his room. I sat down, and he sat back on the bed.

"So what did you get for your birthday?" Drew asked.

"Oh… damn, I forgot to bring the presents!" I said, smacking my forehead, "I was going to open them here, but I forgot,"

Drew laughed. This made me happy… his laughing face.

"So Drew," said Mum. I threw her a meaningful look. I didn't want her to make Drew cry when he was this happy, "You're sixteen this year, right? There are so many birthdays,"

"Yeah, in July… I think I'm the youngest here," said Drew, not looking too upset about it. I had a feeling that mum was getting to asking him if he was born premature or not.

"You're not the youngest," said Casey, "My birthday's not 'till September. I'm the youngest in my family too…"

"Oh," I said, trying to start up a conversation, "So you have siblings?"

"Yep," said Casey, looking somewhat awkward, "I have two older brothers… one's twenty-three and the other's twenty-seven,"

"Oh, okay," said mum, "That's a bit of a gap, eh?"

"Yeah," said Casey, flushing slightly, "Seven years,"

"I'm an only child," said Ash, taking his own seat, "Which still makes me the youngest in the family,"

"I'm an only child too," said Drew, I looked over at him, and with relief I found that he was still smiling.

"So this makes me the only one that ain't the youngest," I said triumphantly, "You've all met my psychotic little brother,"

"You're both like me," said mum, indicating Ash and Drew, "I was also an only child…"

"Um, just excuse me," I said, standing up. I needed to use the toilet. It was hard being pregnant, I was starting to realize. I needed to go to the toilet every hour and a half or so, which did get slightly annoying, especially when I was rather busy. Once I had finished in the bathroom, I returned to Drew's room to find that the discussion topic had changed.

"Yes, May was born a week late," mum was saying, "Max was really early though, almost two weeks,"

I knew what mum was getting at. She was trying to get Drew to spill the beans, and I had a feeling that if he really was born prematurely, then it could hurt his feelings. I didn't want this to ever happen again.

"Hah," said Ash, "I was earlier… three weeks,"

"What about you Drew?" mum asked. I groaned… why was mum like this? She was probably just trying to help Drew, but I hated it when she was like this.

"Oh, I was on time," said Drew, looking slightly alarmed as mum addressed him, "Just two days late,"

"Oh… really?" said mum, looking rather taken aback, "Well, that's great… I thought you were born rather early, you're pretty thin, no offence,"

"None taken," said Drew with a sigh, "It's my fault that I'm like this…"

"What do you mean?" said mum, looking shocked again. Drew reached for his bedside table and picked up the framed photograph which rested on it. It was the same photo of him when he was a little that he had showed me a few weeks back. He handed the photo to mum. She looked at it rather intently,

"Is this little boy you Drew?" she said, after staring at the photo for five whole seconds, "You were so cute!"

"That was before my parents died… obviously," said Drew with a sigh. Mum nodded,

"Your mother looked like an angel, and your father is pretty handsome. You take after them both," she said sweetly, "You are pretty chubby in this picture though,"

"Yeah, I was chubby when I was little," said Drew, "…but after my parents died, I sort of starved myself… I couldn't eat anything and in the end I ended up like this,"

"Mhmm," said mum, "I understand that… a lot of kids do that when they lose their parents,"

"I've always been pretty short though," said Drew, "That isn't my fault,"

"Don't worry, you'll grow," said mum, laughing, "Look at our Max, he really takes after his father. Both of your parents look really tall Drew, I'm sure that one day you'll be like them,"

I was quite happy that Drew was cheerful today. He was steadily getting back to his old self, and was becoming less and less gloomy.

"Have you got a discharge date yet?" I asked, Drew turned to face me.

"Oh… yeah, I forgot to tell you that! I'm supposed to be let out on Sunday,"

"That's great!" I exclaimed, "Drew, we've decided that we're going to return to Hoenn the day you get discharged,"

"What?" said Drew looking alarmed, "Why?"

"Things didn't exactly work out well…" said Ash, sighing,

"But May, don't you want to enter contests?" said Drew, "I don't really want to go back home just because I got hurt,"

"I'm pregnant Drew," I said, giving off a sigh of my own, "In a few months I won't be able to enter contests, and also, it's about time that I go and check in to the hospital and have them help me through my pregnancy,"

"Oh, okay," said Drew, "What about Casey?"

"I'm going to come with you guys, I have never been to Hoenn," said Casey, smirking.

"Ash and Casey want to stay at our house," said mum, "We've got Max's bedroom spare as well as our guest room… you can come too Drew,"

"Really?" said Drew, "That would be great… I don't really want to return to my house,"

"It's fine!" said mum.

We spent the entire day with Drew, talking about all sorts of things. We'd finalized plans to return Hoenn. Hopefully one day, we would still return to Johto.

By the time we left the hospital, it was already nine o'clock at night. Time had really flown on my birthday. I was about to get to bed when mum called me back.

"Hey May, you haven't opened your presents yet," she said. I turned around, remembering.

"Oh," I said, feeling slightly stupid, "I wanted to open them with Drew…"

"It'll probably make him feel worse," said Ash, who sitting at the table, drinking some hot chocolate, "You know how he couldn't get you anything,"

"Go on May," said Casey, who was sitting next to Ash and reading a magazine, "Open them!"

"Okay," I sighed. Smiling to myself, I walked over to the table and picked up the first gift.

"That's mine," said Ash, smirking slightly. I tore open the wrapping paper, and I found that inside was a Ribbon Case. It was a beautiful shade of pale pink.

"I thought you might like a new one, considering how full the other one is," said Ash with a laugh. I smiled back at him.

"Thanks, it's beautiful!" I said, laughing too, "I forgot to bring my old here, so right now, the ribbon I won the other day is sitting at the bottom of a paper bag… thanks for that,"

I moved towards the next parcel. This one was rather soft. I tore this one open too, I didn't really believe in saving wrapping paper. The parcel contained a flowing white blouse. It looked rather expensive, but very beautiful. I opened the card, written down the bottom was "From Casey," in elegant handwriting which matched.

"Thanks!" I said to Casey, who had gone back to her magazine.

"Oh," said Casey, looking up, "Oh, you opened it. You like it? Ash insisted on buying you clothes, but I told him not too… he doesn't have enough fashion sense,"

I laughed again as Ash retorted with "HEY!". I moved to the next parcel, this one had a card attached to it which clearly read "To my darling daughter," on the front, so I guessed it was from mum. I once again ripped the wrapping paper open, and this time I found a book. _The Do's and Don'ts of Pregnancy_ was written on the cover. It was a rather thick book too.

"Thanks mum!" I said, looking at the cover. I knew that a lot of pregnant women read this book, but I never thought that I'd get one, "I really need this,"

"I was thinking that we could read it together someday," said mum with a smile, "I really hope it will help,"

"I think it will," I said, going back to the table. The only thing left on it was an envelope, obviously containing a card and a tiny box which would fit into my hand easily. I opened the envelope, wondering who the card was from.

_Dearest May,_

_I sure am missing a whole lot of birthdays, aren't I? Sorry about that, maybe I should have waited a while before I left. I still haven't caught up to Leila. You could say that I got held up (I'm still alive and in once piece, so don't worry), by, well, it's private (Heehee, I'm inwardly glad that you're not psychic). Anyway, I really wish I could have been there for your birthday May,_

_Happy Birthday!_

_Hugs and Kisses, Lots of Wishes,_

_Love Max._

_P.S. Hopefully the little gift I enclosed is good enough for you. I know that you're going back to Hoenn, so I'll meet you guys there once I've gotten rid of Leila._

"It's from Max," I said, moving to pick up the gift. This time it was in a box, so I just opened it, and pulled out what looked like a small bottle of perfume. The words _"Sakura Essence_" were printed on the glass.

"He got me perfume," I said with a little laugh, I bent closer and smelt it, "Wow, it smells pretty nice,"

"Can I see the card?" said mum, she was obviously still concerned for Max's safety. I handed it to her, and I watched as her eyes moved from left to right repetitively as she read the card.

"_Hugs and kisses, lots of wishes_," said mum, smiling faintly, "He still writes that on his cards… that's one thing that hasn't changed about him,"

When he had been younger, Max would always write Hugs and Kisses, Lots of Wishes on his cards. He obviously still did, or maybe he was just doing it for me.

"At least he's still alive," said mum, "But I wonder what this 'private' business is about… unless my little Maxie has gotten himself a girlfriend. I wonder what the odds on that are,"

"Pretty high," I said fairly, "He looks like an emo kid, which is attractive, and yet he's nice but cool at the same time… making him a chick magnet,"

"But he's only fourteen," said mum, "That's a bit young,"

"It's not," said Ash, " I met Casey here when I was eleven, and we've been going out since we were fourteen,"

"The next generation is laughable," said mum, "Things have really changed so much since I was growing up,"

"I thought you lived in the time where people dropped out of school to get married at seventeen," I said smartly. Mum looked slightly scandalized.

"That was the generation before us," she said quickly, "I was born in the neutral generation,"

I laughed. This really was one of the best birthdays ever. Everybody here was just making jokes… it was so fun to have an awesome atmosphere. Part of me wished that Drew, Max and dad were all here but then again, you couldn't have everything. That was how life was.


	22. Look Who's Back!

"What?" I shouted, "You guys are planning to LEAVE?"

Drew, mum and I had just returned from the hospital after my check-up. Ash and Casey had been waiting at home. Ash had just told us that he had wanted to take Casey on a small tour around Hoenn. I hadn't really expected this, but I knew I couldn't go along: Drew was still too frail to travel too much.

"We're not going to be gone for long," said Ash, "Maybe just three months or so. We aren't going to go any further west past Fortree city, and we're not going to visit any islands. We'll definitely be back before your baby is due,"

"Oh Ash," said Casey, biting her lip, "Maybe we should wait… what if something happens in May's pregnancy and she loses the baby, she'll need your support, you're her best friend,"

"I thought you wanted to go around Hoenn," said Ash now talking to her, "I understand about May, but you're my girlfriend and…"

"I want to go," said Casey, "But…"

"No," I said, smiling, "You guys can go… I really don't mind. It's just… I'm so worried. With people like Leila Jones out there, I don't want anyone getting hurt and Max is already gone..."

"You're saying you don't mind?" said Casey, "Are you sure you'll be okay?"

"Yes," I said, smiling confidently, "Just be careful,"

"Thanks," said Casey, looking the part, "I've always wanted to explore Hoenn…"

"You be careful too," said Ash, patting me on the back, "Don't let the morning sickness take ya down,"

_**A week later….**_

"_Don't let the morning sickness take ya down,"_

I WISH. Morning sickness was a pain. Over the past week, since Ash and Casey had left, things had probably gotten worse for me. I was vomiting on an average of five times a day, my appetite had changed so much that I was up almost all night and to top it all off, even I was starting to realize the growth in my stomach size.

I had to keep a bowl next to me at all times now, as vomiting was getting uncontrollable. I was somewhat sick of it. Here I was, sitting at my desk, trying to fill in my scrapbook. I had taken a fair few photos on my small and not so successful tour of Johto, but none the less, I now had over a hundred to stick into my scrapbook.

I stuck down another photo, this one was a picture of me on my birthday. I turned the page of the scrapbook. Damn. This page was covered with "publication details". I didn't see the point of this, as it was just a blank scrapbook, not a normal book. Either way, I had reached the end of my scrapbook and I had no more for now. Wow, I had already finished with six different scrapbooks. I needed to buy one the next time I went shopping.

I shut my now complete scrapbook with a sigh, and piled up all of the remaining photos and put them neatly next to it. Tomorrow I could go shopping and buy another scrapbook to keep myself occupied, but for now, there wasn't much point. I loved scrapbooking so much, but I needed a bit of a break.

I stood up from my chair at my desk and walked over to my bed and collapsed onto it. I seized the pregnancy guide book which mum had gotten me for my birthday and opened it at the page I had read up to. It had a picture of a woman placing her hand on her stomach, she wasn't really showing yet, but was more like me, her stomach was just not curved inward anymore.

I put my hand to my stomach, just like the woman in the picture was doing. I couldn't feel anything yet, but I knew there was a baby in there. I couldn't explain it exactly, but it didn't feel the same as it would have two months ago, it had just changed.

I had been lying down in that position for a while when my door swang open and Drew walked in. He had just been down to the hospital with mum, for a small post-injury check-up that the doctor had wanted. I had insisted on going, but I had been feeling really out of sorts, and mum had said that I should stay back.

"I'm back," he said loudly, putting his bag down on the ground. He looked slightly miserable.

"What's up? What did the doctor say?" I said, sitting up, and swinging around to face him. He shrugged,

"Same as always, I need to gain weight… perhaps try to be more careful with my health… I never really get a positive comment when I go to the doctors," he sat down at my desk.

"Oh… don't worry, I'll love you all the same, regardless of what the doctors think,"

Drew smiled. "Your mum is a bit of a reckless driver sometimes," he said, smirking, "We were running late and she was just made all of these sharp turns and was driving like it was a race or something,"

"Well," I said laughing a bit, "What do you expect… she used to be like one of those girls in that movie, Grease.

"

"What the hell?" asked Drew, turning around rapidly, "Your mum, a pink lady? What the hell?"

"Yeah," I said, nodding, "See, not many people know, but when she was in her teens, mum wore lots of pink, big jewelry and things,"

"For some reason, I can't picture that," said Drew, raising his eyebrows.

"I'll show you a picture!" I said, standing up and moving to my cupboard. This was where I kept all of my completed scrapbooks. I opened the cupboard and pulled out all of my scrapbooks, they were quite heavy together. I dumped them on my bed.

"Okay… I've got a picture in one of these," I said, sitting back down and opening the first scrapbook, "I think it's this one,"

"How many of those things do you have?" asked Drew, his eyebrows raised even higher.

"A lot," I said, opening the next scrapbook. I hadn't found anything in the other one, "Okay, it's this one… come here," I opened at the page where a picture of my mum was.

Mum had been sixteen when this picture was taken. Her hair was just like mine, split at the back, only it was slightly more reddish in color. She was wearing a black singlet top underneath a pink jacket and a pink leather skirt. Her nails were painted hot pink, so were her lips. She was wearing huge red earrings with a matching red necklace (Made of huge beads) with matching red high heeled shoes. She also had big multi coloured clips in her hair. If anyone were to dress like this now, they'd just look gross, but back in the day that this picture was taken, mum was the girl that every guy wanted.

"Woah," said Drew, looking astounded, "She looks almost just like you! I really don't believe that's your mum,"

"Ew, I don't dress like that," I said, laughing, "My mum's hair is the only thing that resembles me. She got the perm a little while after this was taken too. Anyway, want to see my dad?"

"Okay…" said Drew hesitantly, "He doesn't look all that different… does he?"

I flipped the page of the scrapbook. There was a photo of dad, looking smiley, aged sixteen. His hair was like Max's, but a little longer. It fell into his eyes in the same way though. He was wearing a polo jumper, and tracksuit pants. Drew raised his eyebrows as he looked at the picture,

"Is that really your dad? He said, turning and looking at me, "Wow, he looks like Max! You guys really take after your parents,"

"Ha, really?" I said, smiling, "Mum says that I look like dad, as in… my face she also says that Max takes after her,"

"So why is your dad away again?" asked Drew, "I didn't exactly hear,"

"Something to do with training," I said shrugging, "He's been the gym leader since before I was born, and I'm quite sure that he doesn't need training but heck, if he says so…"

"I take it you're going to be the leader after him?" asked Drew, "Is it hereditary?"

"If you have children you're free to pass it on to them, otherwise they hold some sort of tournament for the entire city to participate in, and the winner becomes the new gym leader. The latter is more common these days, because Gym Leaders stop being Gym Leader young so they can go out and explore the world at start a family, also, most people give up before they start a family because it's a bit hard to be a Gym Leader and look after your family at the same time," I said, closing my scrapbook. Drew nodded.

"I see," he said, "But your dad did it… he got married, had two kids and he's still the gym leader,"

"Yeah, but that's my dad," I said, smirking, "He can do anything as long as he tries,"

"Anyway, answer my question May… are you going to be the gym leader after him?" Drew asked, this time more seriously. I shook my head,

"We're well on the way to starting a family already," I said, putting my hand to my stomach, "I'm not my dad… I won't be able to do it,"

"But…" Drew started. I shrugged.

"I never really was into Gym Leaderism anyway. Max was since he was really little though, so he'll be the leader after dad,"

"If he survives that is," said Drew, "He could be too young… are there any requirements for being Gym Leader?"

"Only when dad retires. Max'll be like twenty five years old then… also, there isn't any age limit. Ash's friend Misty was gym leader when she was like twelve. The only thing you are required to do, is defeat the current gym leader while being watched by an official. That'll just mean that Max will have to defeat dad… and when that battle comes, it'll be interesting,"

"If Max doesn't die now that is…" said Drew, "Otherwise-"

"I'll take over," I concluded, "I want to keep it within the Maple Family line. It's been like that for a few generations now. Besides, I know my brother. He's been in more near-death experiences than a lot of people I know, and he's only fourteen. Trust me, he'll be okay, he's his fathers son,"

Drew made to say something, but he was cut off by the doorbell ringing. I got up,

"Let's see who it is," I said, pushing myself up. We left the room and walked up to the stairway. Mum was already at the door, about to answer it. She opened it and let out a squeal.

"Norman!" she exclaimed, moving forward and throwing herself into someone's arms. My heart skipped a beat: Dad was home.

"Speak of the devil," I said, turning around and running back into my room. Hopefully mum hadn't noticed me. Drew followed, looking utterly bewildered.

Why had I run? That's probably what he was wondering. I didn't want to confront dad about my pregnancy. I didn't want to confront mum either, but thanks to Max I ended up having to. Mum was going to tell him eventually, but I just couldn't let him know… dad's reaction would be ten times worse than mum's.

Unlike mum, who simply shouted, dad would talk to me in that deadly tone, and then avoid me. His goal would be to make me feel so bad that I'd get upset and regret what I had done. I hated the feeling he gave me.

"What's going on May? Norman's your dad right? Don't you want to talk to him?" Drew called after me. I didn't really want to explain to him that I didn't want to talk to my dad, it could offend him; he had no father after all. I didn't really know what to say.

"Drew," I said, shutting the door behind him, "My dad… won't be too happy with me, he's going to be really mad at me… I did miss him, but I don't want to talk to him… he's going to make me feel really bad," I bit my lip. What I had said probably didn't make sense to Drew.

"I think you should talk to him," he said. I shook my head really quickly.

"I CAN'T talk to him!" I said frantically, "You've got to understand, I can't!"

"Would you rather telling him yourself or your mum telling him?" said Drew, "If you tell him, you might be able to twist the story a little bit to make it seem a bit more likable, but if your mother tells him she'll tell him the real story,"

"I guess," I said, biting my lip again, "But when do I tell him?"

"May dear," came mum's voice from downstairs, "Come here! You won't believe who's here!"

I swore. I couldn't avoid it any longer. Drew shrugged. I stood up with a sigh, and Drew followed suit. I was shaking as I walked down the stairs. After what seemed like half a second, I reached the lounge room, where mum and dad were. Dad moved forward and pulled me into a hug.

"May!" he said, his hug not as tight as one of mums, but still rather tight, "It's been quite a while since I've seen ya," He noticed Drew, "Oh, so Drew's here too… mum just told me that you two were going out, and all about Drew's injury… I'm glad to see you so healthy Drew,"

Dad looked fairly happy to see me and Drew, which could only be a good thing. Maybe telling him about the baby wouldn't be too hard at all.

"Aren't you going to tell daddy the good news May?" asked mum from behind Dad. Dad turned to her,

"What news?" he asked, "Did you win another contest or get a new Pokemon?"

"No…" I said, my voice faltering. Okay. It was going to be hard. Drew gave me a little tap on the back

"Tell him," he whispered. I sighed

"I'm pregnant dad. I'm having a baby!" I said. He stared at me.

"What," he said simply. A smile was appearing on his face though. I was rather shocked about this.

"Norman," said mum, not looking at dad's face, "Don't be upset, May made a little mistake and we tried to convince May to have an abortion and all but-"

"Caroline," said dad with a pause, "I'm very proud of May. It's okay, and I'm really happy about all of this. Remember how when we first got married, we wanted to have a lot of children, like ten or something… but then we decided not to because of all the complications that came up when you were pregnant with Max? Well, I'm glad that we might end up having a lot of grandchildren instead!" Dad moved forward and pulled me into a hug, "I'm really proud of you May," he whispered into my ear.

"Oh yeah," said mum, "Your _other_ child has some news for you too, although he's not here to tell you himself,"

"You mean Max?" said dad, releasing me and turning back to mum, "Did he come back? I haven't seen my boy for years now… I want to battle him one day,"

"If he ever returns that is," mum muttered under her breath. Dad narrowed his eyes,

"What was that Caroline?" he said, with a little smile, "I didn't quite get that,"

"I saw Max, maybe three weeks ago, and well… he gave us the news we've been dreading. He's psychic Norman," said mum. Dad swore.

"Did he prove it?" he asked. Mum nodded.

"Why were you dreading it?" I interjected. What was wrong with Max being psychic? It was a bit creepy and all, but there wasn't anything that bad about it. Maybe dad wanted the gym to stay normal type forever or something.

"Leila Jones," said mum, "That's why we've been dreading it,"

"Leila Jones?" asked Drew, "She's that loony who stabbed me though, I thought she lived in Johto,"

"WHAT?!" said dad, looking around at mum, "You told me Drew was injured but you didn't tell me she was behind it…"

"Well, she was… and guess what, Max thought that it was his fault that Drew got hurt or something and he decided to go after Leila Jones. I don't know where he is now,"

"He's alright!" I said loudly, "He said so on my birthday card… he'll be okay,"

Everyone ignored me.

"Why didn't you tell him everything about her?" dad asked mum. Mum sighed,

"I was going to but he took off in the middle of the damn night without even saying good bye, I was going to tell though…"

"He already knows everything about her! We all know she's some crazy old hag who likes stealing people's Pokemon and then injuring them,"

"That's not all of it," said dad.

"Mhmm," said mum, "We've got some family history with Leila Jones,"

"What the hell?!" I shouted, completely confused. Dad and mum had both forgotten about me being pregnant.

"This is all my fault. I'm so sorry about all of this Caroline… I made a big mistake in falling for her," said dad, ignoring my comment.

"What's going on?" I asked. What did dad mean by _"Falling for her…"_

"Leila Jones was my first girlfriend," said Dad, sighing.

"WHAT?!?" I shouted, Drew shouted the exact same thing at exactly the same time. I knew that Dad had been going out with some other girl before he met mum. This was back when dad had been a gangster, having run away from home because he didn't want to take over as gym leader. I had heard a little bit about her, but for obvious reasons, dad didn't talk about her in front of mum. Never did a suspect that this girl was Leila Jones.

Mum bent down and looked in one of the cabinets. She pulled out dad's photo album, he used to keep an album, before he got married of course. He'd vent his anger and write stuff in there too, you could call it the forerunner of my scrapbooks. Mum was frantically flicking pages until she came to one in the middle of the book. She showed it to all of us.

Dad had to be about twenty years old in the picture. His hair was still long, and he was wearing a lot of leather. He looked like an older Max. He had his arm around an arrogant looking girl. She was wearing similar clothes, and her hair was done up in a tight high ponytail. Even from the old photograph I could tell that the girl was Leila Jones. When I had first seen Leila I had got the feeling that I had seen her before. Dad was smiling in the picture, and Leila was smirking rather arrogantly. The two of them were standing on a beach. Scrawled in messy handwriting underneath the picture, were the words,

_July 1985. _

_We were having so much fun at the beach today. At least, Leila was. She wanted to get some kind of tan (Which I found quite pointless) and I ruined it so she started splashing me with water and everything! She ended up dragging me into the sea, and we were swimming around when Leila got her foot caught in what she thought was seaweed, but turned out to be a Bellsprout. Bellsprout is a pretty rare Pokemon in Hoenn and Leila seized the chance to catch it! She likes being different… and having rare things. We ended up staying at the beach forever. We only left when my lip became all puffy because of my allergies! This had the be the best day of my life!"_

"That woman… that's Leila Jones, right?" I asked utterly bewildered. "You guys look so happy together!"

"God… she looks like ME!" said Drew, "That expression on her face. _I_ look like that in most of my pictures.

"I think that I better tell you the story about how your mum and me met," said dad, "It's a long story, but I think you should know… sit down,".

Yep. Leila's more significant to the story than most people suspect o.o.


	23. Back in the Dark Days!

_Sorry to keep you waiting Lol. Norman/Caroline meeting time. No. Don't ask why I made __Norman a gangster a. One of the things that actually started up the entire Leila Jones plot was me thinking about how cool old and balding Norman would be if he had been a gangster :P. Drew was originally gonna get attacked by a wild Pokemon, Max was never going to appear, neither was Caroline and um, this was going to be your average Contest Shipping story with nothing much in it except the usually boy meets girl, they fall in love etc. etc. O.O. It took me forever to come up with Caroline's Maiden Name too! Anyway, I'll stop ranting and get on with the story…_

"It started back when I was sixteen… you know, your age," said dad, "My parents were getting old, and were going to give up the gym, so it had to go to me" said dad, "Back then, if you had children, it had to go to one of them, before going to the public,"

"But what about Aunt Isa?" I asked. Isabelle, or Auntie Isa, was dad's sister. She was two years younger than him. She was a mother of three now, but I had found out that back in her day, she had been a legendary coordinator. She had won six consecutive Hoenn grand festivals, along with her Flareon, Flarez. She also had more than a hundred ribbons. "She's great with Pokemon too!"

"Gym Leaderism was All-Male then. There were no female Gym Leaders back in 1979, the year this all happened. The law stated that female's couldn't become Gym Leaders. They hardly ever tried anyway. Coordinating was less rough and also focused more on looks, so women and girls almost always chose coordinating over badge collecting,"

"That's so sexist!" I shouted, "There are so many great female gym leaders… I mean look at Flannery and Winona and all that,"

"They changed the law in 1991," said mum, "The year after you were born… don't worry, you can still become Gym Leader if you want to,"

"_**Hell no!**__"_ I shouted, "Max can have it…"

"Yes, he now _can_," said dad, "Back in my day, it strictly was the eldest son,"

"It would have gone to Max anyway," I said, "I'm a girl. Max _is_ the eldest _son_,"

"True," said dad, "Anyway, as I was saying, I didn't want to become the Gym Leader. I loved to travel. Me and Isabelle used to travel together, and I'd collect the Gym Badges and she'd enter the contests…"

Dad had once won the Hoenn League. Both him and his sister had been champions in the Pokemon world.

"I didn't want to stay in one place though, and a gym leader had to do that. My parents were very strict about this sort of thing, and well… they told me that I had to be the Gym Leader. I still didn't want to though,"

"So what did you do?" Drew asked, apparently interested in all of this.

"I ran for it," said dad, smirking slightly, "One night I just ran, I didn't tell anyone, not even Isabelle. By the time morning had come, I was in Rustboro City. I was an idiot though. I hadn't brought much money or clothes or anything. I used my credit account to get myself a room in the worst apartment in all of town. That apartment was where the poorest gangsters in all of town lived. It wasn't serviced and it stank. A lot of illegal things happened there…"

"Woah!" I said, "That's disgusting. Are you sure you aren't exaggerating?"

"Nope, he's not," said mum. She had come from Rustboro City, having only moved when she got married. She already seemed to know dad's whole story, "Rustboro City is a big glamorous business city now, but back then it wasn't like that at all…" Dad looked at her with his eyebrows raised, "Not for everyone anyway," she added.

"She's right," said dad, "But it wasn't all black market and abuse. There were a lot of innocent people there, trying to get their business done,"

"…Only the stupid gangsters went and robbed them," said mum.

"Bingo," said dad. "It was a really dark city. It actually became known as the "Black City" at some point. There were so many robberies and murders with gangsters all over the place,"

"What? Didn't gangsters die out in like… the 1920's" I asked.

"It was a big city, with lots of business but hardly any law. If you lived there and you weren't rich, you really didn't have anything better to do… Anyway, back to what I was saying. There were a lot of innocent people in the city, like your mother…"

"I thought mum was a punk!" I said, remembering the photo I had in my scrapbook.

"She was definitely a rebel, doing whatever she wanted… but never a gangster. She never robbed anyone or did anything illegal… not that she needed to. Your mum was one of the wealthiest girls in all of town, she was the daughter of the Vice President of the Devon Cooperation, and a good friend of Steven Stone. She just didn't listen to what people told her to do,"

"What the hell? Mum knows Steven?" I said, shocked. I knew mum's father was the Vice President of Devon, but I didn't know that she was acquainted to Steven.

"He was my best friend when I was young," said mum.

"If Caroline was innocent how come she dressed like…" Drew began, mum smiled,

"That was the fashion," she said smirking.

"We'll get back to Caroline later. Like I said earlier, I spent all most all of my money on that crappy apartment. I needed something to live on, and you know what they say, _When in Rome, do as the Romans do_. Well, technically that applies to any place, not just Rome,"

"I see where this is getting," I said, "You decided to become a gangster too,"

"Once again you're right," said dad, "I thought if everyone else was a gangster, and no one had been arrested, so I could be a gangster too and not get arrested. I used to think that I couldn't be a gangster if I didn't have proper clothes, I guess that's where it all began…"

FLASHBACK

The apartment stank. It was just a small room with a bed in it, and it was connected to the smallest bathroom ever. It literally did stink too, like rotten fish and burning leather. But that's what it was like for a gangster, thought Norman Maple. He had to get used to it though, as this was where he'd be living. He really was an idiot. He could kept going to the peaceful Verdanturf Town just through the tunnel, but he decided to spend his money on this crap. His contract said he had to keep the room for at least a year too. Now he had to live like a gangster to survive. He didn't belong here, at least, he didn't look like it.

His shoulder-length hair was black, and combed very neatly, with all of his fringe gelled off his face. He was dressed in a simple white shirt with a collar, that was tucked into some baggy shorts. He looked like a retard.

"_Maybe I should ask the person next door if they have some clothes I can borrow," _Norman thought, getting up from the bed. He really had no idea how life was around here. Getting up from the moldy bed, he went outside his room, and knocked on the next persons door. before he could do as much as fix up his hair, the door was thrown open by a nasty looking girl. She stared at him for five whole seconds before she actually spoke,

"Ew. What the hell do you want, prep?" she said loudly. She didn't seem to notice that the whole street could hear her.

"I just moved into the apartment next door!" said Norman, not realizing how stupid he sounded.

"And why do I need to know this?" said the girl rolling her eyes. She seized him by the collar, "I'll tell you this once. Don't bother me,"

"Okay… I was just wondering… are you a gangster?" asked Norman.

"Well technically I don't belong to any gang damnit, so no," she said, "But that's not going to prevent me from bashing you up, I can still be a criminal"

"Um… I was just wondering if you knew where to get gangster clothes,"

She stared at him for another five seconds.

"_You_ want to know where to get gangster clothes? What the hell…"

"Yeah… see, I just moved here and um… I don't have anything to eat or anything and I want to be a gangster," The girl stared for another five seconds.

"Well… what's your name?" she asked, folding her arms. Only then did Norman realize that his name would sound stupid.

"It's Normie," He said, biting his lip. The girl nodded, but narrowed her eyes,

"Well _Normie, _If ya want gangster clothes… you've gotta steal them,"

END FLASHBACK

"…And she sent me to go steal clothes," said dad, "She followed me and watched me do it. I managed to smash a window in a shop and steal myself the perfect outfit. Once I emerged from the shop, she came up to me… and told me that I was "Impressive… for a prep," and after that… she just laughed, and asked me if I wanted to join her non-existent gang, and that way we could both be actual gangsters. Lastly, she introduced herself as-"

"Leila Jones," I supplied. I had guessed this from the start.

"Right again," said dad, "After that… we shared apartments and had a bit more space. We formed a small gang, and we managed to steal a lot of things. After I had joined with her, I felt like the life of a gangster was the best life for me, and I felt like I never wanted to return to Petalburg… ever again,"

"This doesn't make sense though… if you were so happy with her and things… why did you come back here and become the gym leader?" I asked.

"I'm getting to that," said dad, "The other thing that happened between Leila and I, was that we got a lot closer to each other. To the point that it got romantic. In fact, the day came when she told me that she loved me. That day, I told her that I felt the same way. This was after about… one year of knowing each other,"

"Ew," I said, trying not to look too revolted, "This is getting really soppy," Drew actually laughed. Wasn't he supposed to hate Leila more than the rest of us?

"To celebrate our love, we traveled out of Rustboro for a month, to Slateport city for a holiday. Leila had never been out of Rustboro before, and she had so much fun in Slateport. That's where that picture was taken,"

"You guys do look pretty happy," said Drew fairly.

"Our relationship lasted almost a year. In 1986 however, something happened which changed it. I was out alone one night, when I ran into another girl. She was carrying loads of bags full of jewelry and everything. I knew that Leila would be extra happy if I stole all of this. Leila loved jewelry. I approached the girl, and told her to give me her jewelry if she knew what was good for her. She just smirked at me and said some simple words, "_Oh no, another stupid gangster. Geez, the world is full of idiots!" _I remember those words as though it was only yesterday," Dad smirked at mum, and I thought I knew who this girl was.

"And with that, she ran for it. Her huge earrings and jewelry dangling and reflecting the light of the streetlamps. For someone laden in so many shopping bags and so much jewelry and wearing high heeled shoes, she could run really fast. I knew she was trying to annoy me, so I chased her. For some reason, she never seemed to get tired and had me running for half an hour. The funny thing was, that as she ran all of her merchandise slowly started falling out of her bag. That wasn't that strange, as she was running pretty fast. The bit that bugged me, was that she never turned back to get it – she just kept running, and instead of picking up the fallen jewelry, I kept chasing her. Eventually, I gave up…

FLASHBACK

"OKAY I GIVE UP!" Norman shouted, "What's your deal woman?!" he asked the girl, he was panting and couldn't run any further, "You did realize that you dropped all of your jewelry, didn't you?"

"Yes, I did notice that," said the girl. She was wearing a red leather skirt, and a green leather jacket over a black shirt with matching red high heeled shoes, her huge earrings and necklace were red as well. Contrary to this appearance, she had an annoyingly high pitched and overly sweet voice, "What I didn't understand though was how a stupid gangster like you didn't bother to pick it up after me,"

"I wanted to keep chasing you. Ask why you wouldn't pick up your jewels, isn't that what you treasure?" said Norman. The girl gave a high pitched laugh,

"Of course not… that's what the stupid gangsters think life is all about. There are poor people who aren't gangsters you know,"

"Then why were you buying jewelry?" Norman asked, extremely confused.

"That's not the point. I'm just saying that my life doesn't revolve around money and jewelry,"

"Then why are you wearing so much?" asked Norman. How could she call _him _stupid?

"Because I don't care about gangsters. They're stupid idiots after all," the girl replied. She was still smiling.

"What do gangsters have to do with you wearing Jewelry?" asked Norman again. This girl really was an idiot.

"A lot of people have jewelry. Only no one wears it because they're scared of stupid gangsters,"

Norman found it extremely annoying how she couldn't say the word "Gangster" without putting the words "Stupid" or "Idiot" in the same sentence.

"Your point is?" He asked, rolling his eyes.

"It's simple. If you wear jewelry, you're obviously going to get chased by stupid gangsters, like I just was,"

"B-but-" Norman began, but he couldn't think of something to say, "What's your name girl?"

"I'm Caroline South" said the girl, with another laugh, "What's yours?"

"Normie," said Norman. No one in the entire city knew his real name, not even Leila, he went by the name of Normie to everyone, and he had told everyone that his last name May, "Normie May,"

"That sounds like a girl's name," said Caroline still laughing, "That can't possibly be your real name, you're just trying to appear like a 'cool' gangster. Go on. Tell me, what is your real name?"

Norman didn't know what to say, how the hell did she work out that it wasn't his real name?. There was Caroline, looking completely untroubled by everything. No one had asked Norman what his real name was before. He could picture her laughing when he told her, and saying that his name was cute or something. But still, she wouldn't tease him about it. He thought that it wouldn't hurt to tell her.

"It's Norman Maple," he said, slightly embarrassed. Caroline stopped laughing.

"You know what Norman?" she said, "I'm surprised that you haven't bashed me up yet. Here I am, a sweet innocent and rich girl, the type that every stupid gangster wants, I'm sitting here completely unprotected and all and still you haven't laid a finger on me,"

"Oh right um… Vigoroth Go!" shouted Norman, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a pokeball. He used his Pokemon to bash people up, "Vigoroth use um-"

Caroline rolled her eyes, but continued smiling. Norman felt like he couldn't attack her. He just stood there for a few minutes before Caroline gave a yawn,

"Are you going to attack me or not?" she asked, the smile still on her face. Norman shook his head.

"You know what?" she said again, "I should apologize to you,"

"For what?" said Norman, once again confused. Caroline smirked,

"For calling you a Stupid Gangster. You're not a gangster… you can never be a gangster,"

"I've been one!" said Norman, "I've bashed people up before! I've done things with my gang,"

"You can only do it if there are other people watching… you only do it for others. You aren't meant to be a gangster. You're meant to be a Gym Leader,"

"What the hell? How did you know that?" asked Norman. Caroline gave another smirk,

"Surely you read the news. It was the headline like last year… "PETALBURG GYM HEIR RUNS FROM HOME,". I'm sure your family really miss you,"

Norman hadn't thought of his family for almost a year. Of course they'd be worried about him. He felt guilty… his parents were strict, but at least they looked after him, gave him food and made sure he didn't have to steal to live. He then understood that Caroline was THAT rich, just rich in contrast with the life he had been living, but compared to his previous life, she was just the same.

"Caroline… I'd just like to say thank-you," said Norman, "You've made me realize just how much I've run away from,"

"Anytime," said Caroline, smiling again.

"But… will we see each other again?" Norman asked, Caroline shrugged,

"That's one thing that you can decide on," said Caroline, "I'd like to see you again… you're the cutest guy I've come across, ever,"

"I think you're hot too, it's just that… I've got something to clear up first…"

END FLASHBACK

"…I still had to tell Leila that I wasn't a gangster. I knew that she wouldn't take it nicely, but I never expected the reaction she gave me…"

FLASHBACK

"I'm home," said Norman, coming in through the door and landing on the bed. He didn't know how to tell Leila about his encounter with Caroline...

"What took you so long dear?" asked Leila, coming out of the bathroom, "Did you get anything,"

"Look, Leila," said Norman, sitting up with a sigh, "I don't think I can do this anymore…"

"Do what?" said Leila, her eyes narrowed,

"Listen, Leila… have you heard of a girl called Caroline South?" asked Norman. Leila nodded,

"Yeah, don't tell me you haven't. EVERYONE knows who Caroline I'm-So-Cool-Because-I-Wear-Pink-And-Like-To-Show-Off South is. That girl's the daughter of Devon's Vice President. She acts as though she rules the world… that spoilt brat. Doesn't understand how good it is to be gangster. She's a freak…"

"You're wrong," Norman shouted at Leila, who took a step back.

"What did you say?" Leila asked, she looked furious. Norman continued to shout at her,

"IT'S NOT GOOD TO BE A GANGSTER. I ran into Caroline South today and she reminded me of just how much I've run away from… how much I've missed out on. I've just realized that I didn't find anything here!"

"So you didn't find a girlfriend?" said Leila, pointing at herself, "I loved you Normie, and you're saying that you'd rather be with your family…"

"If you changed and started being more innocent, then I'll keep going out with you, if not, I'm sorry… but I can't go out with a gangster. I'm a prep, remember?"

"What… you… so… don't… You don't want to be my boyfriend if I'm going to keep living my life the way I do?"

"No," said Norman, "I'm going back to Petalburg City, and it's illegal to be the kind of girl you are there. You'll get arrested, so I can't possibly bring you along,"

"FINE!" screamed Leila. Then the strangest thing happened, Norman found himself experiencing a floating feeling and his feet were lifted off the floor. Leila's hair was flying everywhere.

"What's going on?!" Norman asked, a bit scared now.

"I never told you this because I thought you might reject me, but now I don't think it matters because you don't like me! I'M A FRIKIN PSYCHIC NORMIE,"

"What!" shouted Norman, scared for his life, "Let me down!"

"FINE! RUN AWAY. I DON'T LIKE YOU EITHER… you've gone and broken my heart. Go and start going out with Caroline South from all I care… but if ten years from now I become an outlaw and you get rejected from your family… you know that I'm not going to welcome you with open arms Normie." She was getting pretty ruthless, "YOUR GRANDMOTHER IS A PSYCHIC RIGHT? THAT MEANS THAT ONE OF YOUR CHILDREN SHOULD BE ONE AS WELL! Well I'm going to use that to my advantage one day, you can count on that…"

Leila's hair stopped flying, and Norman hit the ground with a crash.

"NOW GET OUT AND NEVER COME BACK!" Leila screamed at Norman, "But don't worry, I'll know where you're going, I'll know everything," she pointed at her head. Without taking any of his things, Norman left the building, never to come back.

END FLASHBACK

"What did she mean by _I'm going to use that to her advantage_?" I asked dad.

"Caroline South was probably the richest girl in all of town… every gangster thought that she was a spoilt brat…"

"And I don't blame them," said mum with a smile, "I used to run around in pink and oversized jewelry, teasing gangsters by blowing kisses at them as I got into my limousine… those were the days,"

"So wait…" said Drew, "YOU were Caroline South?"

"Well duh," I said. How could Drew not get that?

"As I was saying, everybody who was bad hated pretty perfect Caroline South. Everyone thought that she was going out with the just as perfect Steven Stone, when in reality they were just friends. However, there weren't many female gangsters, but the ones who hated Caroline the most were the female gangsters, like Leila. Caroline was famous, she was named the "It Girl" of Rustboro city in 1985 and she had even been on the cover of the "Rustboro" Magazine once. She was the girl that everyone wanted to be. Deep Inside, even Leila envied her.

"But… mum didn't care? She knew that everyone hated her, but still she went and teased the gangsters?" I asked dad, "She could have gotten hurt or something…"

"Your mum had that charm. Like I said, everyone hated her, but everyone wanted to be her. She just picked on people, but I wouldn't consider it teasing,"

"But… she could never say the word "Gangster" without putting "Stupid" in the same sentence, like you said," I said, mum smirked.

"Your dad is just trying to compliment me, I did tease people and I was rude. I nearly got hurt a lot, but when I felt that people were going to hurt me, I ran for it. I used to be able to run really fast. That Jewelry… I deliberately dropped it,"

"But that was a waste of money, unless you went back to get it," I said. I loved jewelry, how could anyone waste it like that?

"It didn't matter. That jewelry was worth only about $100 or so," said mum smirking.

"ONLY one hundred dollars? Mum, that's a LOT of money. I know you were rich and all, but still…" I sighed. It was so hard to believe that my mum was so "preppy" back in her day.

"But," said Drew, "Wouldn't that have annoyed the gangsters? They were already jealous of you having so much money, but then it would have made them even madder because you were wasting it,"

"Nah," said mum, "See, they could pick it up after me and I didn't care,"

"But if you were giving them free jewelry how come they hated you?" I asked. This was so confusing.

"Because I was rich," said mum. I rolled my eyes, we were back at the start again.

"But-" I began, dad shushed me.

"You guys will never understand this. You were born ten years after this happened and the world changed. Rustboro city is now sparkling with skyscrapers and neon lights," said dad. Mum smirked

"It was thanks to Devon that the city became what it is today," she said, smirking, "Back when all of this happened, Devon was known as Stone & South Ltd. You can guess where Stone and South came from. Anyway, Stone & South was the richest enterprise in all of town, they made Pokemon Ware which was shipped to all other cities and towns. It got business from other cities, but no one ever came to the building itself because it was in Rustboro City, where nobody wanted to be. Stone & South wanted more people to know about them, so they put a lot of their funds into establishing a police academy, which enforced laws against gangsters. Gangsters eventually died out, and Stone & South, got more business. The name was eventually changed to "Devon"… don't ask me why. I preferred the old name better, but anyway, Devon got a lot more business and basically, Rustboro city evolved into the biggest business city in all of Hoenn,"

"But you lost a lot of money funding the Police Academy… right?" I asked. Mum nodded,

"Three quarters of Stone & South's money was put into it, but because we got so much business out of it, we made all of our money back, and even made a profit," said mum.

"But why did you leave Rustboro if you were such a success. Everyone knew your name and everything!" I asked mum.

"Because I liked your father and I wanted to see him again. I took a fraction of my money when I married him though. His parents were pretty rich though, so I didn't need to take much. I left all of my 'fame" behind. No one could look at me now and know that I was the same girl who was the It Girl of 1985 and the girl on the cover of the June 1985 edition of "Rustboro" Magazine," said mum.

"So your parents took you back in?" Drew asked dad. Dad nodded,

"They were so happy to see me. I thought they'd hate me, but they were happy that I came back. It was funny, because I became Gym Leader as soon as I got home, and about a year later, it came up in the newspapers about how Stone & South Ltd had conquered the gangsters… then I thought about Caroline. She was probably really rich now, well on her way to becoming both a super model and a top-notch business woman, I assumed that she had forgotten me. I had only talked to her once. But then, in 1989 there was a knock on hour door, and I opened and there was Caroline. She had come to see me! I was so glad that she had come to see me, and when she told me that she liked me, I instantly asked her out and let her live at my house, unless she wanted to get back to her luxury. And then she told me those words, the words I still remember and will never forget…"

"Being in your arms is the best luxury a girl could have," said mum smirking. Dad put his arm around her, "A few months later your dad asked me to marry him,"

"And she said yes," said dad, "A few months after that we got married. Once again we were both in the headlines, "RUSTBORO'S IT GIRL WEDS EX-GANGSTER GYM LEADER,". Some thought it was a scandal, but Caroline's parents were happy with it, and that was all that mattered I guess. So a year later, you were born May, and Max followed two years later,"

"But, you still haven't told us what you meant by Leila Jones saying _I'm going to use that to her advantage_,"I said. Dad's smile vanished,

"See, Leila HATED Caroline. Caroline didn't hate her, but of everyone in town, Caroline picked on Leila the most. Leila wouldn't have been half as mad if it was anyone else who talked me out of being a gangster, but when she found it was Caroline, she was so furious. She would have found out from the news that I had married Caroline, which I think she predicted would happen. What I'm trying to say is that she attacked Drew just to get through to you and Max and ran off. I don't think she knew which of you two was psychic, but she suspected that one of you were. When Max was able to track her down, he ran after her, which was precisely what she wanted. She doesn't want us to be family… I think she wants to destroy us all, one by one,"

"Just because you married mum?" I said, "What an i-"

"It's my fault," said mum, "I showed off and picked on her too much,"

"It was my fault for running away to Rustboro. I'm so happy as a Gym Leader, I don't believe that I didn't want it originally…"

"It's no one's fault but hers. Dad, if you didn't run away, you wouldn't have met mum. Mum if you didn't pick on people you wouldn't have met dad. It's no ones fault," I sighed, "If it weren't for everything you did, we wouldn't be a family in the first place. Dad would be a couped up Gym Leader, mum would be a supermodel and me and Max wouldn't even exist,"

"I can't imagine life like that," said mum and dad together. They stared at each other and laughed.

"You're right May, it might seem bad now, but I'm sure everything will be okay soon enough, and I'm really looking forward to the baby. That'll be in the news too "Norman Maple, 41, the Celebrated Ex-Gangster Gym Leader of Petalburg City and Caroline Maple (nee: South), 41, Rustboro's It Girl of 1985 and Heir to the Deputy Position of Devon Co-Operation's are going to become grandparents…"

"Yep, that's how it will be. It was in the news when you were born too," said mum. I had never suspected that my parents were so famous, "I've got newspapers somewhere… I'll go get them," Mum stood up and left

"Ooh," said Drew, "I want to see,". He got up and followed mum. This left just me and dad.

"May…" said dad, with a great sigh, "I'll say it again while your mother isn't around. I really am proud of you and I just hope that everything goes well with your pregnancy. When your mother had you… I was so nervous for Caroline, her parents were here and everything too! Then the day came, and well, the look on her face was one I never thought I'd see on her face. Caroline was confident, carefree, happy-go-lucky and extremely cheeky. She was also a little posh and everything, but I had never seen her looking so scared before. She had gone through the rest of the pregnancy like it was a piece of cake, but the day the baby arrived… that scared me too. She was squeezing my hand too tight, but then you were born. With Max… even though it was physically harder for her, she knew how it was so it was a bit easier. May, this is the first baby… so be careful okay,"

For some reason, I had started crying. I wiped my face, but dad came up to me and pulled me into a hug,

"It's okay May… daddy will be there for you too," he whispered.

"Why didn't you tell me about Leila before though?" I asked. He sighed,

"I didn't want you to worry. I won't let her get you but I'm worried about your brother…"

"Max was really confident, and I don't think she'll get him. I know she won't. Max has mum's charm, everyone hates his guts, but everyone wants to be him. Leila Jones never got mum, and she'll never get Max either,"

"Thank-you for being so optimistic May. It's made me feel better already," said dad with a smile.

"I love you dad," I said, throwing myself into his arms again.

---

5,425 Words. That's the most… ever. I have never written something that long. EVER.


	24. Even More Flashbacks!

Okay. New chappie o.

As the weeks passed, I couldn't stop thinking about dad's past. How could he have never told me that his first girlfriend had turned into a crook. How he had once been a gangster, how mum had been so spoilt and how Leila Jones had personally said that she would destroy our family. I talked to mum and dad about it, and they were pretty good with answering all my questions: They weren't keeping all the information to themselves. The thing was just how they kept everything about their past so secretive. I always knew mum was from Rustboro city, but she never told me that it was such a wreck before. I still remember those words which she said on my birthday,

"_I was born in the neutral generation,"_

Her generation was neutral? Our generation was more normal than hers. I had seen pictures of mum when she was young, but of course she wouldn't have pictures taken in the middle of the wreck. To try and understand mum and dad's story better, and visualize it, I started another scrapbook; this one all about my parents. Mum and dad gave me a few photos and other pieces of memorabilia to stick in.

"You do realize how pathetic this is, don't you?" said Drew. I had just come out of the toilet, and I found Drew sitting on my bed and looking at my scrapbook. I raised my eyebrows. He smirked,

"Why are you putting all of THIS in your scrapbook? I mean, you can put all of that other stuff in because it's happy, but this thing about your parents… it's not something to be proud of, is it?"

"That's not the point," I said, sitting down on the bed with him, "I like to really visualize things,"

"Whatever," said Drew. He looked back down at my scrapbook. He was looking at the magazine cover I had cut out: the one with mum's picture on it. She had that hairstyle which annoyed me "The Perm", bright red lips and pale cheeks. The photo had that eighties photo quality, with the word "RUSTBORO" printed on the top. Rustboro Magazine was the big magazine in Rustboro city, it was sort of like "MP: Media Petalburg," the magazine of Petalburg city. Every city had one of these magazines.

"Meet Rustboro's first QUEEN IT GIRL," read Drew from the magazine cover, "What is this IT Girl competition anyway?"

"Surely you know about the IT GIRL competition," I asked scandalized, how could anyone have not heard of it? "It's an biannual competition and one girl from each major city is picked to be the IT Girl of the city. She's basically called to press conferences, and asked a lot of questions and things,"

"And what do you need to win this competition? Is it some kind of "Get famous for nothing" thing?" asked Drew, he seemed to think that the entire thing was pretty pathetic.

"No way," I shouted, I had always wanted to win the IT GIRL competition, "You need to be a good role model and just stand out from the rest of the city," I told him, he raised his eyebrows,

"So any girl in the city is eligible, whether she knows about the stupid competition or not?" he asked, I nodded,

"Any girl between the ages of ten and twenty is eligible. Of course, if a girl wins the competition and doesn't want the publicity she can refuse and a new IT GIRL will be chosen, no one will ever know that she won in the first place,"

"So every major city has an IT GIRL, right?" said Drew. He still seemed to be pretty bored with the topic.

"Yep. And then all of the selected girls go up against each other in some kind of pageant and the winner gets crowed the "_Queen IT Girl_" which basically means she's the of the best, she gets a hell lot of prizes and things too. My mum had that honour…"

"That could up the odds on you getting it one day, couldn't it?" Drew asked. I sighed,

"I'm not a good role model and I don't stand out at all. There are so many people in Petalburg City who win the competition and everything,"

"But you're the daughter of the Gym Leader and a previous IT Girl. Your parents are famous, you could win, I'm serious,"

"Look, every city has to have one winner and in Rustboro city there wasn't much choice for a "Role Model". My mum had that ability to stand out… she filled all of the criteria necessary, and well, with the QUEEN round, she probably won because of the fact that despite being a Rustboro girl she was perfect in every single way,"

"But she was already famous!" said Drew, "I don't know about how good Devon was back then, but about ten years back they bought the whole damn Pokemon League. They're in charge of what goes around everywhere now,"

"I know that," I said, "Dad has to sign a contract with Devon every now and then. He could get sacked as Gym Leader if he's not careful with Devon. Of course, he has mum so he's a bit luckier,"

"I'm just saying-" Drew began, but he got cut off by a shout from downstairs. Mum's voice.

"Lunch is ready guys!" she called, I closed my scrapbook and stood up quickly, Drew followed.

"I'm so hungry, I could eat anything," I said, walking into the hall. Drew raised his eyebrows,

"Funny. Just five minutes ago you said that you felt bloated and couldn't eat anything," he said. I shrugged,

"This isn't the first time actually, for the last week or so my appetite's been going crazy…" I said. Drew smirked,

"Pregnancy hormones," he said, with a flick of his hair, as we reached the dining room.

"Well Duh," I said, taking my seat at the table. Mum came in with a big bowl of what looked like vegetable soup.

"Ew, mum… soup?" I asked, raising my eyebrows.

"It's good for you," said mum, dumping soup into my bowl. I looked at in disgust. Gross. It looked like a brown-grey mass of liquid which could have come out of the toilet. Floating it were numerous icky green vegetables. Mum's cooking wasn't the best, but this was just… pushing some boundaries. How on earth could she expect me to eat this junk?

"Mum… I'm not eating this!" I shouted, as mum put some soup into Drew's bowl. Drew smiled and thanked her.

"Don't complain May. See, Drew's not complaining," said mum, taking her own seat and putting some of the soup – no, the sewerage – into her own bowl," I snorted.

"Eat it May. My mum would get me to eat this when I was little!" said mum, drinking some of her own. Drew also ladled some into his mouth

"It's pretty good May," he said fairly.

How could he contradict me? Okay, I was being stupid… but I was suddenly angry. My face grew really hot… I wanted to shout…let it all out. Without even thinking twice, I stood up abruptly and slammed my hands onto the table.

"I'M NOT EATING THIS JUNK" I shouted, still confused with my body. My shout didn't even sound like me, usually when I shouted, there was some sweetness in the voice. This time, it all sounded cruel and harsh.

Obviously Mum and Drew had noticed the strangeness of the scene. They were both taken by surprise, and knowing them, they were probably the two people who wouldn't care the most if somebody shouted. The tension in the room was so great that you could actually feel it making your body heat up. Nobody spoke for a minute.

During this time, the feeling of great anger inside me just evaporated. I suddenly felt like an idiot… shouting like that over some soup? It just didn't make sense. I mean, I had experienced my little fights with my body with Harley and all, but this wasn't as serious. Actually, it was right at the bottom of the seriousness scale.

"What was that?" came another voice from the other room. I looked up and saw dad walking into room, also looking a bit taken aback, although not as much as Drew or mum. Great, just what I needed. More people to see me as a jerk. I had forgotten that dad was back. Ever since his return, he had been so busy with his duties as Gym Leader, I hardly ever saw him, except at meals.

"Hi dad," I said nervously. Dad laughed and took a seat at the table too.

"You remind me of Caroline when she was pregnant," he said. She'd shout and completely lose her mind over the most pointless things. Mum beckoned me to sit down.

"It's alright May," she said, as I resumed my seat, glad that nobody wanted to have me grounded or anything, "That's not the last time that'll happen. It's all normal,"

"Not the last time?" said Drew, who seemed to be returning to normal, "You mean that she could do that again?"

"She **will** do that again, I'm sure of it," said mum, "Don't worry. She won't be genuinely mad at you, so it's okay,"

My heart was beating slightly faster at the sight of them talking about me, but I gave a little smile. The sensation I just experienced, and the events which happened… it was normal. I wasn't losing my mind or anything.

"You're going to have to get used to it Drew," said dad, putting soup in his own bowl, "Mood Swings is just the first part. Trust me, before you know it she'll be kicking you off the bed, asking for piggy-back rides and asking you to prepare for her tomato sauce on peanut butter crumpets with pickles to fulfill her cravings…"

I laughed at the look of horror on Drew's face. Dad seemed to notice it too,

"I'm serious," he said, taking some soup into his mouth, "You should have seen Caroline. If you think she's weird now, you should have seen her fourteen years ago…"

Mum elbowed dad so hard, that he spluttered and choked on his soup. After he had stopped coughing however, he kept talking,

"I still remember one incident where I was fighting a Gym Battle and Caro-"

"Don't you dare tell them that," said mum, darkly.

"What?" said dad innocently, "I'm just telling May what to expect…"

Mum snorted but didn't say anything. Dad took this as an indication to keep telling his story.

"As I was saying…"

FLASHBACK

"Both Vigoroth and Bibarel are unable to battle! This leaves each trainer with one Pokemon each," said the assistant. Norman smirked at Christian, the boy facing him from the other side of the gym.

"You're pretty good!" Norman shouted to the boy, "But I haven't let out my best yet…"

"Neither have I," said Christian. He gave a big smile. Christian was a trainer from Sinnoh, with many Pokemon which Norman didn't know much about. He was really anxious to know what Christian's best was.

"Go Slaking!" shouted Norman, throwing out a Pokeball. Christian nodded,

"Spiritomb, I choose you!" he said, throwing a Pokeball of his own. A big ghost Pokemon emerged.

"Woah, you must be really good to have a Spiritomb. I've heard of them!" said Norman, "But that doesn't mean I'm going to go easy on you… Slaking use Amnesia!"

Slaking began to forget everything, Christian went on to make his move.

"Spiritomb use-" he began,

"NORMAN!"

"Eh? Norman… that's not a move," said the Gym Leader. It was a while before Norman turned around and realized that his eight months pregnant wife, Caroline was standing in the gym doorway, and was the one who had called his name.

"Caroline?" Norman said, quite confused, "I told you not to come here… you could get hurt,"

"I want Oatmeal with grated carrot and mustard topped off with sprinkles now!" Caroline demanded. Christian stood there, totally forgotten about.

"Oatmeal? Grated Carrot? Mustard? SPRINKLES? What are you on about?" asked Norman, quite embarrassed. His challenger began laughing, as did Sprititomb and Slaking.

"I SAID I WANT AN OATMEAL WITH GRATED CARROT AND MUSTARD TOPPED OFF WITH SPRINKLES!" shouted Caroline.

"er… can't it wait till after the battle?" asked Norman, still shocked about her behavior. Sure, she had said some weird things to him in the past… but this was just beyond crazy.

"NO!" she shouted back. The challenger roared with laughter. So did the Pokemon. Norman stood there humiliated.

"GET IT FOR ME NOW!" bellowed Caroline.

"Erm, can we finish this later?" Norman asked Christian, who nodded through his laughter.

"NO!" shouted Caroline, "I WANT MY OATMEAL, AND AFTER THAT I WANT CHICKEN COOKED IN WHIPPED CREAM WITH-"

"Okay, okay…" said Norman. He turned to the challenger, "Looks like she's not going to give up. I'm technically not allowed to do this, and it's not like me either… but you're pretty good, so you can have the badge for free…"

"Really?" asked Christian.

"I'm afraid so," said Norman, sighing and taking out a badge,

"I WANT MY OATMEAL!" shouted Caroline.

FLASHBACK END

"Christian went on to become the winner of the league. It's kind of ironic actually, because the Devon Rules state that nobody may receive free badges… and that if they do, they'll get disqualified from the Pokemon League, and the gym leader who gave them the badge will also get sacked… luckily he kept it secret, or I would have been in trouble…"

I was laughing now. I was sure that nothing that serious or retarded would happen to me. Oatmeal with carrots, mustard and sprinkles… wow, not even Ash would eat that. Drew was laughing really hard as well, and dad was smirking at his own cheek. Mum however, had turned bright red.

"You had to do that, didn't you?" she said in a deadly tone. She folded her arms and snorted really hard. Dad put his arm around her.

"Cheer up Caroline," he said, "You know I love you…" he smirked. Mum snorted again, but it became obvious that she was trying to hide a smile. I gave yet another small laugh. It was at about that point that the phone rang. Mum was fairly popular around town, and she was almost always on the phone with friends and family. Looking perhaps relieved to get out of the awkward situation with dad, mum stood up and walked across the hall to answer the phone.

"Was all of that actually true?" I asked dad, after mum was out of earshot. Dad nodded, smirking. Drew looked horrified again,

"That isn't going to happen to May, is it?" he asked uncertainly. Dad gave another laugh.

"I always thought Caroline was a bit extreme… so maybe not, but then again, May is Caroline's daughter."

"I'm not like her, everyone says I take after da-" I began, only then I heard it. A shriek from the next room.

"Eeeeh, are you serious?" I had a flustered voice say quickly. Mum's voice. It was high pitched and flustered. Obviously she had got some bad news over the phone, or some extremely good news.

Within milliseconds, dad was on his feet, running to the hall. My heart was racing, what could it be? Mum's shriek was full of expression, but it lacked mood. You couldn't tell if she was happy or sad. Good news would have her screaming, as would bad news. Mum was an enigma at times.

I got out of my chair and ran after dad, Drew behind me. When we reached the hall, mum was _crying. _One hand holding the phone up, the other hanging limply by her side. The expression on her face made it clear that she had received some bad news, really bad news.

"Mhmm…" she said into the phone, nodding, and shaking at the same time, "When did this happen?"

"Caroline!" shouted dad, "What's up? Did something happen…" he asked, running up to her. Mum pushed him away, shaking her head.

"Okay… we'll be there straight away," she said into the phone, still shaking. As she lowered the receiver down, she cupped her face in her hands.

"Caroline?" dad asked. I had seen mum cry before, but never this hard. I glanced at Drew, he was standing against the wall, slightly pale.

"Mum, what is it?" I asked. I just wanted to know what had happened, even though I already had a hunch.

"I told him not to go after her," said mum quietly. Drew froze, dad sighed, I felt like my heart had fallen out. Everybody knew what this was about – Max.

"Why didn't he listen to me?" mum whispered.

"This is about Max, isn't it… what happened?" I asked. I was worried for my life now. Had he been hurt, or was he okay? Something must have happened… otherwise mum wouldn't be crying. What if it had gotten even worse, what if my little brother had been killed?

Drew was looking down now. He probably felt awkward too, he had no siblings, but he had lost family members before.

Mum was still shaking, and she didn't even seem to be able to speak properly. Something really serious had happened. "H-he's been beaten up severely. Rushed to Petalburg hospital… critical condition..." she said, her voice faltering. I bit my lip. Critical Condition? What did that mean? How serious was it?

"Leila Jones… that witch," said dad, biting his lip, "Argh, this is all my fault. I should never have dated her…"

"No Norman," said mum weakly, "It's my fault… I shouldn't have made her hate me so much. I regret being such a freak. Now she's gone and killed my son…"

"He's not dead," I shouted, unable to hold it in any more. "Look mum, what you did was just your idea of having fun! You lived in that horrible city and you had nothing else to do. You were like sixteen,"

"You're sixteen!" said mum through her tears, "And you're not doing any this _shit_ that I did!"

There was a small pause. Mum did get angry, but she never really swore. I had only heard a swear once, one time during that period where she thought dad was cheating on her with nurse joy, but I knew she disapproved of it. I remembered the first time I swore in front of her. I had gotten into a fight with Max, and said some swear word to him. Mum had asked if I knew what the word meant, and when I had said yes, she had hit me.

"Come on," said Dad, bravely, he took a step towards mum, and helped her up, "Let's get to that hospital," he said, "Nobody does that to my son and gets away with it. I'll get her back, but for now, let's get in the car… I need to see my son,"


End file.
